Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
to a motion she made (the verb "duck", the subject of which is the objective pronoun "her", object of the verb "saw"). [5] Syntactic ambiguity arises when a sentence can have two (or more) different meanings because of the structure of the sentence—its syntax. This is often due to a modifying expression, such as a prepositional phrase, the ...
The large ball crashed right through the table because it was made of Styrofoam: ambiguous use of a pronoun: The word "it" refers to the table being made of Styrofoam; but "it" would immediately refer to the large ball if we replaced "Styrofoam" with "steel" without any other change in its syntactic parse. [27]
Syntactic ambiguity, also known as structural ambiguity, [1] amphiboly, or amphibology, is characterized by the potential for a sentence to yield multiple interpretations due to its ambiguous syntax. This form of ambiguity is not derived from the varied meanings of individual words but rather from the relationships among words and clauses ...
v. the verb "buffalo" meaning to outwit, confuse, deceive, intimidate, or baffle. The sentence is syntactically ambiguous; one possible parse (marking each "buffalo" with its part of speech as shown above) is as follows: Buffalo a buffalo n Buffalo a buffalo n buffalo v buffalo v Buffalo a buffalo n.
Lexical ambiguity is a subtype of semantic ambiguity where a word or morpheme is ambiguous. When a lexical ambiguity results from a single word having two senses, it is called polysemy . For instance, the English "foot" is polysemous since in general it refers to the base of an object, but can refer more specifically to the foot of a person or ...
A dangling modifier (also known as a dangling participle or illogical participle) is a type of ambiguous grammatical construct whereby a grammatical modifier could be misinterpreted as being associated with a word other than the one intended. [1] A dangling modifier has no subject and is usually a participle.
Modern English speakers understand the sentence to unambiguously mean "Time passes fast, as fast as an arrow travels". But the sentence is syntactically ambiguous and alternatively could be interpreted as meaning, for example: [2] (as an imperative) Measure the speed of flies like you would measure the speed of an arrow—i.e. (You should) time ...
Verb usage; Transitivity; Syntax. Clauses. in English; ... and "powerful engine". Collocations make it easier to avoid overused or ambiguous words like "very", "nice ...