Ambiguity

1. Ambiguity & Its Types
Group Members:
Muhammad Usman, ID: CU-10-2019
Arsalan Khattak, ID: CU-11-2019
Subject: Critical Thinking

2. Introduction
A word, phrases or statement which have more then one meaning, then it
is called ambiguity.
The ambiguity is in the language. Language ambiguity can be a fun or
serious case in affecting the audience's understanding.

3. example
• The boy carries the light box.
• This example has three different meanings:
• (light) not a heavy box
• (light) a box that has an electric lamp.
• (light) a shiny box

4. Types of Ambiguity
(1). Lexical Ambiguity: (within a word)
This form of ambiguity is also called homonymy or semantic ambiguity. It occurs in the
sentence because of the poor vocabulary usage that leads to two or more possible
meanings.
Example:
I went to the bank.
Sentence is ambiguous because the word bank can mean either a type of financial
institution or an area of land next to a river.

5. (2). Syntactic Ambiguity: (within a sentence or sequence of
words)
This form of ambiguity is also called structural or grammatical
ambiguity. It occurs in the sentence because the sentence structure
leads to two or more possible meanings.
Example:
I invited the person with the microphone.
This example has two different meanings:
I spoke (using the microphone) to invite the person
I invited the person who (has the microphone).

6. (3). Anaphoric ambiguity
A phrase or word refers to something previously mentioned, but there is
more than one possibility.
Example:
Ali invited Ahmad for a visit, and he gave him a good lunch.”
(he = Ali; him = Ahmad)