Lexical Ambiguity
Lexical Ambiguity
“What you see is what you believe on the basis of what you have conditioned yourself to accept. Your negative will be someone’s positive.” – Pushkar Shinde
I’m always told since time immemorial that I have to speak and express myself because I have something to say but being an English major brought me in a point of realization wherein I learned how hard it is to be entirely understood. As my professor had always told me, meanings are in people, not in words.
Language, being a system of communication, has a very delicate job to perform, particularly when it is being used by us humans. Words in fact communicate a whole personality and that’s why their correct usage has so much importance. But no language in the world has so far been able to claim that it is capable of communicating all that a human wants to communicate to another human. Ambiguity will always be present.
Ambiguity, as a language phenomenon, has a negative effect and some people consider it a curse. I could not blame them. People can have major misunderstandings by thinking someone is meaning one thing when their real meaning is totally different. Many times, these misunderstandings result in comedic action, but they can cause major trouble. Just as different cultures have varying customs and can insult one another if that is not understood and ambiguous language does the same. Words can cause miscommunications, misunderstandings, and basically just a lot of confusion. Ambiguity of language, then, seems to be at the focal of conflicting interests that abhor precision and accountability. It is the possible root of our chaos and could lead to heinous event such as war, terrorism, racism, etc.
Ambiguity will always be a part of language complexities. If ambiguity is employed properly and appropriately, it will produce a magical effect. I will focus in this fact and attempt to show that even when perceived as a problem, ambiguity provides value. In
“What you see is what you believe on the basis of what you have conditioned yourself to accept. Your negative will be someone’s positive.” – Pushkar Shinde
I’m always told since time immemorial that I have to speak and express myself because I have something to say but being an English major brought me in a point of realization wherein I learned how hard it is to be entirely understood. As my professor had always told me, meanings are in people, not in words.
Language, being a system of communication, has a very delicate job to perform, particularly when it is being used by us humans. Words in fact communicate a whole personality and that’s why their correct usage has so much importance. But no language in the world has so far been able to claim that it is capable of communicating all that a human wants to communicate to another human. Ambiguity will always be present.
Ambiguity, as a language phenomenon, has a negative effect and some people consider it a curse. I could not blame them. People can have major misunderstandings by thinking someone is meaning one thing when their real meaning is totally different. Many times, these misunderstandings result in comedic action, but they can cause major trouble. Just as different cultures have varying customs and can insult one another if that is not understood and ambiguous language does the same. Words can cause miscommunications, misunderstandings, and basically just a lot of confusion. Ambiguity of language, then, seems to be at the focal of conflicting interests that abhor precision and accountability. It is the possible root of our chaos and could lead to heinous event such as war, terrorism, racism, etc.
Ambiguity will always be a part of language complexities. If ambiguity is employed properly and appropriately, it will produce a magical effect. I will focus in this fact and attempt to show that even when perceived as a problem, ambiguity provides value. In
Cited: Cruse, A. D. (1986). Lexical semantics. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Clare Quiroga Cecelia, “Language Ambiguity: A curse and a Blessing”, March 10, 2011. N.p. d.p Fortier, Paul A. "Semantic Fields and Polysemy: A correspondence analysis approach" University of Manitoba Jastrzembski, J. E. (1981). Multiple meanings, number of related meanings, frequency of occurrence, and the lexicon. Cognitive Psychology. Kellas, G., Ferraro, F. R., & Simpson, G. B. (1988). Lexical ambiguity and the timecourse of attentional allocation in word recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. Lyons, J. (1977). Semantics. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Miller, George "Ambiguous words" iMP Magazine. March 22, 2001. Miyake, A., Just, M.A., Carpenter, P.A., 1994. Working memory constraints on the resolution of lexical ambiguity: maintaining multiple interpretations in neural contexts. J. Mem. Lang. Minamato Virginia, “Speech Ambiguity”. June 25, 2007. March 10, 2011. N.p. Reynolds, Robin, “Ambiguity of Speech”. June 20, 2007. March 10, 2011. N.p Traugott, Elisabeth Gloss