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Lexical and Semantic Ambiguity

er, they cannot be delinked from each other. That is because lexical ambiguity may be a part of semantic ambiguity, though, in Levine's view, semantic ambiguity can exist even if lexical ambiguity does not (seem to) present itself. In that regard, however, Asher and Lascarides suggest that lexical ambiguity is ubiquitous. They link these two domains of ambiguity by making the point that "discourse structure affects the meanings of words, and [] meanings of words affect discourse structure" (69). Information flows back and forth "between the semantics of words and the structure of discourse" (Asher and Lascarides 69). If that is so, and if ambiguity is embedded into the structure of discourse, then lexical and semantic ambiguities feed and are fed by each other.

Palmer brings in more specific ideas of ambiguity when citing polysemy, the Greek word for multiple meaning, as "the existence of two or more meanings or senses to one word," and homonymy as words that are "different in meaning but identical in form" (Palmer 914). This may seem to be a distinction w

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Lexical and Semantic Ambiguity. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 02:49, April 18, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1682332.html