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* Exercise on types of ambiguities. [[Determine_the_type_of_ambiguity|Link to the exercise]] (only one example so far).
* Exercise on types of ambiguities. [[Determine_the_type_of_ambiguity|Link to the exercise]] (only one example so far).
(1) ''Pat didn't know a guest at the party.''
<quiz>
{ Determine the type of the ambiguity }
- lexical
||Of course, you could argue that the name Pat could either refer to a female person (short for Patricia) or a male person (short for Patrick). In this sense, it would be a lexical ambiguity. However, we are after a different type of ambiguity here.
- structural
||You might argue that the preposition phrase at the party could attach to the noun guest, to the verb phrase know a guest, or to the entire sentence. In each case, the truth conditions of the sentence are the same.
+ scope
||This is a scope ambiguity.
The two readings are:<br />
Reading 1: Not > Some
:: ''Pat knew no guest at the party.''
:: More formally: ''It is not the case that there was a guest at the party that Pat knew.''
:: In this reading the negation has scope over the indefinite ''a guest''.
Reading 2: Some > Not
:: ''There was one guest at the party Pat didn't know.''<br />
:: More formally: ''There was a guest at that party such that it is not the case that Pat knew this guest.''
:: In this reading the indefinite ''a guest'' has scope over the negation.
Follow the link to get more [[Types of ambiguity|explanations]]
- collective-distributive
||For such an ambiguity to arise, we typically need at least one plural entity.
</quiz>


== Other material ==
== Other material ==

Revision as of 14:56, 10 March 2013

Warning:
The material on this page has been created as part of a seminar. It is still heavily under construction and we do not guarantee its correctness. If you have comments on this page or suggestions for improvement, please contact Manfred Sailer.
This note will be removed once the page has been carefully checked and integrated into the main part of this wiki.

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(1) Pat didn't know a guest at the party.

  

Determine the type of the ambiguity

lexical
structural
scope
collective-distributive


Other material

(copied from NMTS-InferencePage#Dialogue_by_User:Manfred)

Dialogue by User:Manfred

The following passage is taken from David Mitchell Cloud Atlas, London: Sceptre, 2004, p.33f.
(Comment: this is not a real dialogue, but the text is clear enough so that it is easy to see what has been said in the described situtation.)

  1. Along the gangway I stepped (Prophetess was bucking like a
  2. young bronco) to the officers' mess, knocked & entered. Mr
  3. Roderick & Mr Boerhaave were listening to Cpt. Molyneux. I
  4. cleared my throat and bade all good morning, at which our ami-
  5. cable captain swore, `You can better my morning by b-ing
  6. off, instanter!´
  7. Coolly, I asked when the captain might find time to hear news
  8. of an Indian stowaway who had just emerged from the coils of
  9. hawser taking up my `so-called cabin´. During the ensuing silence
  10. Cpt. Molyneux's pale, horny-toad complexion turned roast beef
  11. pink. Ere his blast was launched, I added the stowaway claimed
  12. to be an able-seaman & begged to work his passage.

Entailment: Line 4: I bade all good morning entails I said something

Presupposition: Lines 8/9: hear news of an Indian stowaway .... Presupposes: there is an Indian stowaway ....
Type of presuppostion: factive
Note 1: it is remarkable that in this case the presupposition projects over a modal (might) and an embedded question (when ...).
Note 2: the factive presupposition with hear is not as strong as with know, realize or the other predicates discussed in class.
Note 3: In line 12, the verb claim is used. Its complement clause's content (the stowaway is an able-seamben) is not presupposed.

Implicature: Lines 10: my so-called cabin. Implicature: my cabin is not a proper cabin (because of all the stored hawser)
Type of implicature: particularized conversational implicature.
Calculation: The maxim of manner seems to be flouted (be brief) by the apperantly superfluous so-called. The addressee understands that the speaker wants to communicate more than just saying that the stowaway was in his cabin. The attribute so-called indicates that the object does not fully satisfy the criteria of what would count as a real cabin.