（毕业设计论文）ToTreatAmbiguityProperly.docVIP

To Treat Ambiguity Properly abstract: ambiguity is an inevitable language phenomenon that arouses current interest of many linguists. the present paper attempts to make a tentative analysis of ambiguity which is subdivided into phonological/phonetic ambiguity, lexical/semantic ambiguity, structural/grammatical ambiguity and pragmatic ambiguity based on its different causes. to treat ambiguity properly, the author points out that ambiguity is both a problem to avoid and an award to make use of. thus several possible means to disambiguate are suggested, mainly attributed to achievements in the study of context. key words: ambiguity; causes; context; disambiguate; application clcnumber:h319documentcode ：aarticleid：1672-1578（2012）03-0001-02 introduction language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbol used for human communication. it might be regarded imprecise concerning the ubiquity of ambiguity, which inevitably arises mainly out of the intrinsic arbitrariness and conventionality of language, as well as contextual factors. 1 definition of ambiguity ambiguity refers to a word, phrase, sentence or group of sentences with more than one possible interpretation or meaning in a given context. an ambiguous expression can be potentially understood in two or more ways. as geoffrey n. leech puts it, ambiguity is the case of “more than one cognitive meaning for the same piece of language.” (1969) 2. causes of ambiguity to treat ambiguity properly, we are supposed to analyze firstly the possible causes of different types of ambiguity. the most popular classification is employed in the following analysis, i.e. phonological/phonetic ambiguity, lexical/semantic ambiguity, structural/grammatical ambiguity, and pragmatic ambiguity. 2.1phonological/phonetic ambiguity.phonological ambiguity generally occurs in spoken language, where the utterance is conveyed and received by different breath-groups rather than syllable by syllable or word by word. therefore, phonological ambiguity is freq