EDL3205 SEMANTICS FOR ELT 1 COMPILED BY FARRAH DIEBAA RASHID ALI

WEEK SEVEN AMBIGUITY AND VAGUENESS AMBIGUOUS MEANINGS OF UTTERANCES

Reading: Kempson, M. (1989) Semantics Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press [123138] 1. Both words and sentences can have more than one meaning. a. Flying planes can be dangerous b. We saw her duck c. She has good legs 2. Four types of vagueness No. Description 1. Where the meaning of the lexical item is in principle clear enough but it may be hard to decide whether or not the item can be applied to certain objects. When is a mountain not a mountain but merely a hill? When is a forest not a forest but a wood? What crucially distinguishes a house from a cottage? What is the different between city and town? City bigger than town? Town can be small or large, but a city is by definition large. 2. Where the meaning itself of an item seems intangible or indeterminate. Johns book, Johns train, Johns sheets. Johns book The book John wrote, The book he owns, the book he is reading, the book he has been told to read or the book he was carrying when he came into the room. Johns train p.125 Johns sheet p.125 Where the meaning is clear but is only generally specified. Neighbour unspecified gender, race, age etc. Do Ive done the sitting room, to do the engine, to do the dishes, to do the cupboard. Where the meaning involves an either-or statement of different interpretation

3.

4.

EDL3205 SEMANTICS FOR ELT 2 COMPILED BY FARRAH DIEBAA RASHID ALI

possibilities. The applicants for the job either had a first-class degree or some teaching experience. P. 128 for example

AMBIGUITY TEST 1. QUESTION: How to distinguish ambiguous sentence from those which are not? ANSWER: Anaphoric Processes a. Processes which refer back to an earlier part of the sentence. b. One example: the expression to do so too. i. This is used where the action described has already been specified and is being referred to again. ii. E.g. John hit Bill and Jason did to. / Johnny saw her duck and Will did so too. iii. Demands identity of meaning of the two verb phrases in question. iv. Test of ambiguity: If some verb phrase is two-way ambiguous, then we can predict that when it is conjoined to do so or other verb phrase pro-form expression, the entire sentence will be two ways ambiguous. v. In both of the two representations of the sentences meaning, the proform expression will always be identical to it = ambiguous vi. Read p.130 for example. AMBIGUITY AND NEGATION 1. SCOPE OF NEGATION: Those elements to which the negative elements is applying. 2. it wasnt a woman that came to the door a. The scope of negation is restricted to the condition of femininity no other part of sentence is denied. 3. Negative sentences are not ambiguous with respect to variations in the scope of negation.

EDL3205 SEMANTICS FOR ELT 3 COMPILED BY FARRAH DIEBAA RASHID ALI