语言学论文(5)

3.1 Pronominal ambiguity

The first factor of these three that are to be analyzed in this paper is the pronoun. If a pronoun doesn’t denote something clearly, then it may result in ambiguity. Taking this sentence for example, “What can we do to this problem, Jack?” which is ambiguous

because the pronoun “we” can denote two different connotation, one including Jack, the other excluding Jack, and in this case the pronoun “we” brings about ambiguity. One more example, Lily cut her hair and Amy cut her hair, too.” also has two different meanings, because of the pronoun “her” which can refer to “Lily”, but it can also be deemed as “Amy”. By this token, it’s not difficult to coming to the fact that pronouns can cause ambiguity.

3.2 Contextual ambiguity

Context makes a difference in defining the meaning of a discourse. According to Hu Zhuanglin, what the pragmatics study is exactly that how different contexts decide or influence the meaning of utterances. Obviously, in diverse contexts, the same sentence can be comprehended differently. For instance, “We can go to the bank.” can be ambiguous, because it can mean “we” go to the bank of a river, but it can also refer to banking house. However, if it’s in a context, they meaning will be clarified. First, if “and then we can go swimming there.” is added to the former sentence, then a context will come into being, which means that “we” go to the bank of a river and swim in the river. Nevertheless, if another sentence, “so we can draw some money.” is added to the former sentence, then the sentence will indicate that “we” go to the bank building and draw some money in this context. Thus, it’s not easy to arrive at a conclusion that in different contexts the discourses can have different meanings and can cause ambiguity.

3.3 Ambiguity in euphemism and metaphor

It’s well known that almost in every culture there exists something that people always try to avoid taking about. Under these circumstances, other words are used to substitute the things which are avoided when the things indeed need saying out. Such sort of words used to substitute is euphemisms. However, sometimes, the application of euphemism may give rise to ambiguity. For example, “Her old grandmother went to sleep.” (王新，1999) doesn’t mean that her old grandmother fell asleep, whereas it means that her old grandmother died. The phrase “went to sleep” is a euphemism indicating that her old grandmother died, but the sentence didn’t use the verb “die” to

directly state the fact. This sentence is also ambiguous to some extent, for we it can be comprehended that her old grandmother fell asleep; yet it can still be understood that her grandmother died, and therefore it’s ambiguous. What’s more, sometimes the usage of metaphor can lead to ambiguity as well. Taking this sentence for example, “A：You remind me of the ocean. B：Wild, romantic and restless. A: No, you just make me sick.”, in these dialogues the word “sea” is used as a metaphor which is used usually to describe someone is “broad-minded”, a commendatory word, so B misunderstood A’s meaning. Yet, A used the word “sea” to imply B made him think of the sailing of the sea, which made him sick, so is B. As thus, since the word “sea” can be comprehended in different way, then the ambiguity emerges. Therefore, the application of euphemism and metaphor can also bring about ambiguity in English.

4. Lexical ambiguity

Lexical ambiguity belongs to one of the ambiguity. Lexical ambiguity refers to different understanding of one word in a whole sentence. In terms of lexical ambiguity, it specifically relates to the ambiguity caused by the polysemy, homonymy, and the differences between British English and American English, as well as comprehending deviation of some idioms. The linguistic ambiguity caused by lexical ambiguity gives expression to distinct understanding in exact expression. Following are the analyses of lexical ambiguity through specific example.

4.1The polysemy refers to the same word has diversified meanings that lexicalize the same entry in a dictionary. For instance, “bachelor” can refer to a man who is single, as well as scholar. “Mad” means lost mind or get angry. Homonym relates to words that have same spelling and pronounce, but different meaning. The origin of this kind of words is different and make label in dictionary so as to be different entry. Such as, “ball” can mean dance hall or sphere in sports, and bank has the meaning of riverfront or organization to manage money.

At times, it is difficult to distinguish polysemy from homonym. For example, the priest, is going to merry Jane at the church. In this sentence, “merry” refers to polysemy and it has two explains. One is becoming couple with others. In that explain,