Ambiguity refers to words, phrases, or sentences that have more than one possible meaning or interpretation. There are two main types of ambiguity: structural ambiguity, which occurs when a sentence's structure allows for multiple interpretations despite clear individual words, and lexical ambiguity, where a single word can have multiple meanings depending on context. Examples of structurally ambiguous sentences include "Raimi bumped into a man with an umbrella", which could mean either Raimi or the man had the umbrella. Lexical ambiguity is exemplified by the word "young" meaning either a young age or lack of experience, and "bank" referring to the side of a river or a financial institution.

1. Ambiguity

2. What is ambiguity?
• Ambiguity can be defined as a word, phrase or sentence that
has more than one meaning or interpretation.

3. Types of ambiguity
• Structural ambiguity
• Lexical ambiguity

4. Structural Ambiguity
• Structural ambiguity refers to the situation in which a sentence may
have different meanings because the words of a sentence are related
to each other in various ways, even though each word is clear.

5. Example
• “Raimi bumped into a man with an umbrella”
Possible understanding
1. Raimi had an umbrella and he bumped into a man.
2. Raimi bumped into a man when he happened to be carrying an
umbrella.

6. Lexical Ambiguity
• If a word has more than one interpretation, that particular word may
be ambiguous and unambiguous at the same time (depends on
situation).

7. Example
• “Young” can be interpreted as young (age) or inexpert (green).
• “Bank” can also be interpreted as the slope side of a river or the
financial instituition.