Ambiguities
Anything that is said to be ambiguous is open to more than one interpretation. Sentences and words that are ambiguous have more than one possible meaning.
Put the box on the table by the window in the kitchen is an ambiguous sentence
. It could mean any of the following:
Put the box onto the table that is by the window in the kitchen.
Take the box that is on the table and put it by the window in the kitchen.
Take the box off the table that is by the window and put it in the kitchen.
To understand the first and third meanings, it may be helpful to imagine that in the kitchen there are two tables: one by the window and one not.
Ambiguous Newspaper Headlines
Newspaper headlines need to be as short as possible, so whilst they obey grammatical rules, they tend to omit little, unimportant words like the and is. But are these words unimportant? The result of leaving them out can result in highly ambiguous sentences, which are often quite amusing.
These are real newspaper headlines:
KIDS MAKE NUTRITIOUS SNACKS
GRANDMOTHER OF EIGHT MAKES HOLE IN ONE
MILK DRINKERS ARE TURNING TO POWDER
DRUNK GETS NINE MONTHS IN VIOLIN CASE
Explanatios
Ambiguity & Garden Path Sentences
If a sentence is ambiguous, it can have more than one meaning. There are many types of ambiguity. For example, in the following sentence the word bank could mean the edge of a river, or a financial institution:
John went to the bank.
This is called lexical ambiguity because it is the result of one of the words having more than one possible meaning. This next sentence is syntactically ambiguous (the syntax, or grammar, can be understood in more than one way):
Put the box on the table in the kitchen.
Is the box already on the table, and to be put in the kitchen? Or is the box to be put on the table which is in the kitchen? From the sentence alone we cannot tell.
hope that U liked the lesson coz I hate this lesson
Anything that is said to be ambiguous is open to more than one interpretation. Sentences and words that are ambiguous have more than one possible meaning.
Put the box on the table by the window in the kitchen is an ambiguous sentence
. It could mean any of the following:
Put the box onto the table that is by the window in the kitchen.
Take the box that is on the table and put it by the window in the kitchen.
Take the box off the table that is by the window and put it in the kitchen.
To understand the first and third meanings, it may be helpful to imagine that in the kitchen there are two tables: one by the window and one not.
Ambiguous Newspaper Headlines
Newspaper headlines need to be as short as possible, so whilst they obey grammatical rules, they tend to omit little, unimportant words like the and is. But are these words unimportant? The result of leaving them out can result in highly ambiguous sentences, which are often quite amusing.
These are real newspaper headlines:
KIDS MAKE NUTRITIOUS SNACKS
GRANDMOTHER OF EIGHT MAKES HOLE IN ONE
MILK DRINKERS ARE TURNING TO POWDER
DRUNK GETS NINE MONTHS IN VIOLIN CASE
Explanatios
Ambiguity & Garden Path Sentences
If a sentence is ambiguous, it can have more than one meaning. There are many types of ambiguity. For example, in the following sentence the word bank could mean the edge of a river, or a financial institution:
John went to the bank.
This is called lexical ambiguity because it is the result of one of the words having more than one possible meaning. This next sentence is syntactically ambiguous (the syntax, or grammar, can be understood in more than one way):
Put the box on the table in the kitchen.
Is the box already on the table, and to be put in the kitchen? Or is the box to be put on the table which is in the kitchen? From the sentence alone we cannot tell.
hope that U liked the lesson coz I hate this lesson
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