2.3.

4 Ambiguity
An expression is said to be ambiguous when more than one interpretation can be assigned
to it. There are two sources oI ambiguity in natural language: lexical ambiguity and structural
ambiguity. It is a lexical ambiguity iI the ambiguity in the expression is resulted Irom a
polysemous word, i.e. a word that has more than one meaning. A lexical ambiguity can be
disambiguated by paraphrasing the relevant expression:
1. He Iound a bat
2. He Iound a baseball bat
3. He Iound a Ilying rodent

4. She couldn`t bear children
5. She couldn`t stand children
6. She couldn`t give birth to children
In these examples, the ambiguity oI 1 and 4 is explained by paraphrasing the words bat and bear
in 2, 3, 5, and 6 respectively.
On the other hand, the ambiguity is structural iI it is resulted Irom the way oI the
constituents are grouped into a larger syntactic unit. Example:
1. he visited a little girls` school
2. he visited a (little girls`) school
3. he visited a little (girls` school)
Most structural ambiguities can be disambiguated by grouping the words appropriately as in
1. However, there may be some structural ambiguities that cannot disambiguated in the same
way, i.e. in 2 and 3.

2.4.4 Redundancy
#edundancy is the degree to which an expressions contains more inIormation than is needed
Ior it to be understood. #edundant word or phrase express the same meaning within the same
sentence, example:
1. female sister
illegal murder
3 she killed him dead
The words female, illegal and dead are redundant since they have been included in the meaning
oI sister, murder, and killed respectively.