Lexical Ambiguity and Context

[Abstract] This paper cuts into five sections. The first section offers the main idea of this paper. The second section is about the causes of lexical ambiguity， the main theories on how to understand ambiguity words. The third section gives an overview of various views about context. The fourth section deals with the skillful use of lexical ambiguity in different context. The paper finishes with a proposal that future researchers should focus their attention on the influence of context on lexical ambiguity resolution and studies on the processing mechanism of Chinese words should make use of the research fruits of other countries.

[Key words] Lexical ambiguity; homonyms; homographs; homophones; lexical ambiguity resolution; multiple access model; selective access model; reordered access model; integration model; context; linguistic context; situational context

【內容摘要】本文分五部分:第一部分概述本文所要講述的主要內容;第二部分是關于詞匯歧義產生的原因、詞匯理解的理論;第三部分概述語言學家對語境的不同理解;第四部分討論了詞匯歧義在不同語境中的巧妙運用;文章最后提出研究者應將注意力集中在語境對于詞匯消解的影響，這對于中文字詞的加工機制有重要的參考價值。

【關鍵詞】詞匯歧義;同音同形異義詞;異音同形異義詞;同形異音異義詞;詞匯歧義消解;多重通達模型;選擇通達模型;重排序通達模型;整合模型;語境;語言語境;情景語境

Lexical Ambiguity and Context

1. Introduction

Lexical ambiguity is quite a common phenomenon in English langue. There are three main courses for its appearance. Much research has centered on how ambiguous words are understood and two main theories are introduced in this paper. During the past two decades， the study of the lexical ambiguity resolution has been playing an active role in western psycholinguistics and so far four kinds of models have been proposed. Context is distinguished into linguistic context and situational context. It plays an important role in lexical ambiguity resolution.

2. Lexical ambiguity

2.1 Causes of lexical ambiguity

It is quite a common phenomenon for people to find a large number of ambiguities in English language when they communicate. There are three main forms of language ambiguity---lexical ambiguity， structural ambiguity and contextual ambiguity. At the three levels of language ambiguity， lexical ambiguity is the most basic. There are three reasons for the occurrence of lexical ambiguity: homonyms， homographs and homophones. When any of these appears in a sentence or phrase without the restriction of context， ambiguity may take place.

Homonyms refer to words that are identical in sound and spelling but different in meaning， such as ball(a round object used in games )and ball(a gathering of people for dancing); match(a short thin stick， usually of wood， with a head covered by chemicals).

Words that have the same spelling， but differ in sound and meaning are called homographs， e.g. lead [li:d] v. (guide or direct)--- lead [led] n. (a heavy， soft， malleable， bluish-gray chemical element); wind[waind] v. (turn or make revolve)---wind[wind] n. (air in motion).

Words that have the same phonological form， but differ in spelling and meaning are called homophones， e.g. air---heir， sea---see， sew---sow， meet---mete---meat， right---write---rite. They are easy to cause ambiguity and mislead the people. The following is a dialogue. “Mine is a long and sad tale!”said the Mouse， turning to Alice and sighing. “It's a long tail， certainly.” said Alice， looking with wonder at the Mouse's tail， “but do you call it sad?” Because of the same sound of tale and tail， Alice mistook tale said by Mouse as tail.

2.2 The theories on how to understand ambiguous words

Much research has centered on how ambiguous words are understood. There are two main theories: all the meanings associated with the word are accessed， and only one meaning is accessed initially. Support for the first position comes from experiments such as the following. When people are asked to finish a sentence， they take longer when the fragment to be finished contains an ambiguous word than when the ambiguous word is replaced by an unambiguous term， as in the following sentences:

a. After taking the right turn at the intersection…

(right is ambiguous to rightward)

b. After taking the left turn at the intersection…

(left is unambiguous)

What this delay suggests is that all meanings of ambiguous words are accessed and that time has to be taking to decide among them.

However， other experiments suggest that under some circumstances， only one meaning is initially accessed. The frequency and context are two very important effects. If one of the meanings is much more frequent than the other， people tend to assume that the word has the more frequent meaning. The word chair， for example， has at least two meanings---an object to sit on and the head of a department or committee---but the former occurs more often in speech than the latter and people often appear to recognize only the more frequent meaning soon after the word chair is presented to them. This seems to suggest that only one meaning is initially considered， at least for words whose various meanings differ markedly in frequency of occurrence.

The semantic context effect also plays a significant part in deciding which meaning is the most appropriate. When a word like bug is seen in the context of spy， it is reliably identified as meaning “a listening device”;but in the context of spiders and roaches it is identified as meaning “an insect”.

Another factor that is involved in word recognition is context. People recognize a word more readily when the preceding words provide an appropriate context for it. For example， in the sentence “This is the aorta.” People are not given any context that helps identify the word aorta. But in the sentence “The heart surgeon carefully cut into the wall of the right aorta.” Many people would find that the cue of the heart surgeon helps them to identify the word more quickly.

3. Different interpretations of context

Context plays an essential role in determining the pragmatic meaning of an utterance. This notion of context， though widely accepted in the study of language， varies from linguist to linguist.

Bronislow Malinowski said that language “is to be regarded as a mode of action， rather than as a counterpart of thought”. According to him， the meaning of an utterance does not come from the ideas of the words comprising it but from its relation to the situational context in which the utterance occurs.

In his Coral Gardens and Their Magic， he developed his theories on meaning and put forward two points. One of them is that when a certain sound is used in two different situations， it cannot be called one word， but two words having the same sound. He said that in order to assign meaning to a sound， one has to study the situation in which it is used. Meaning is not something that exists in sounds， but something that exists in the relation of sound and their environment.

J. R. Firth also stressed the importance of context of situation. He held that meaning is use， thus defining meaning as the relationship between am element at any level and its context on that level.

Recognizing that sentences are infinitely various， he used the notion of “typical context of situation”. So that some generalizations can be made about it. By a typical context of situation， he meant that social situations determine the social roles participants are obliged to play， since the total number of typical contexts of situation they will encounter is also finite. For this reason， he said “conversation is much more of a roughly prescribed ritual than most people think. Once some speaks to you， you are in a relatively determined context and you are not free just to say what you please.” To emphasize this， he said， “Each word when used in a new context is a new word.”

4. The skillful use of lexical ambiguity in different contexts

Ambiguous words often mislead readers and cause troubles， but unexpected results may be received if they are used skillfully in specific context.

Homophones bean and been are successfully used in the following joke and humorous effect is achieved.

-Waiter!

-Yes， sir.

-What's this?

-It's bean soup， sir.

-No matter what it's been， what is it now?

Homonyms can greatly strengthen the force of the utterance in the following sentence: If you don't learn a craft when you are young， you will have to earn your living by craft when you grow up. The first craft means occupation， especially one that needs skill in the use of the hands. The second means skill in deceiving; cunning. The strong effect is due to the skillful use of craft.

Some riddles are created by making full use of ambiguous words. Here is an example， “Why should a man never tell his secret in a corn field?” The answer is “Because it has so many ears.” The homonym ear is used for the same sound and different meanings， i.e. organ of hearing and seed-bearing part of a cereal， e.g. wheat， barley， etc.

In the area of advertisement or literature ambiguous words are also used much.

5. Conclusion

Because of the contradiction between the limitedness of linguistic forms and the limitlessness of objects， the same linguistic forms bears different meanings. In a general sense， ambiguity should be avoided unless it happens out of certain special needs. To avoid ambiguity， it is essential to supply as sufficient contexts as possible. And from what are mentioned above， it is clearly to see that context plays an extremely role in restricting and selecting lexical meaning. Further researchers should focus their attention on the influence of context on lexical ambiguity resolution. More theories should be introduced from other countries to promote the processing mechanism of Chinese characters.

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(作者單位:安徽省合肥市經濟管理學校)