毕业设计（论文）毕业论文 毕业论文题目：An Analysis on Ambiguity in English Abstract Ambiguity is omnipresent in languages. There have been a lot of researches about ambiguity in the past. This paper makes a comprehensive analysis on the ambiguous structures in English and classifies categories of them based on the different causes: phonological ambiguity, lexical ambiguity, structural (grammatical) ambiguity and pragmatic ambiguity. The phenomenon of ambiguity, whenever and wherever it occurs, may directly lead to the comprehension of expression and communication. Phonetic ambiguity, that is, a word or a phrase sounds which has at least two meanings, which occurs only in spoken English but not in written English. Lexical ambiguity might cause much more complicated problems in the understanding of the language, for it exists not only in spoken form but also in written language. Its existence is attributed to certain ambiguous lexical items, namely to polysemous and homonymous words. In written language, the most important ambiguity phenomenon lies in structure. Structural ambiguity is also called grammatical ambiguity, which means “ambiguity caused by the varied interrelationships between words in a sentence. Even though none word is ambiguous, structurally it still generates ambiguity”. Structural ambiguity is often caused by the linear order of words in a sentence. It often takes place in spoken languages as well as in common phonetic materials. Pragmatic ambiguity denotes that the language expresses different purposes or meanings in the real application. Ambiguity analysis can help improve the ability in language understanding and language application.Key Words: phonological ambiguity, lexical ambiguity, structural ambiguity, pragmatic ambiguity摘要歧义现象在语言中无所不在，在过去已有许多相关的研究。这篇论文将对英语中所存在的歧义现象做一个全面的分析。根据不同的原因，英语歧义现象总体来说可分为四大类：语音歧义，词汇歧义，结构歧义（语法歧义）和语用歧义。不论在任何时间任何地点出现歧义现象，都会对人们的理解和交流造成很大的困难。语音歧义是说一个单词或一个词组听起来至少有两个意思，这种现象只会出现在口语中。词汇歧义是指由于一词多意或同形异义的原因给人们的理解造成了许多困难。这种现象可存在于口语和书面语中。在书面语中，最重要的歧义是结构歧义，也叫语法歧义，它是由词与词之间不同的关系所造成的。即使一个句子中所有的单词都没有歧义，句子的结构也会造成歧义。语用歧义是指说话人在特定的语境中或上下文中使用不确定的或模糊的或间接的话语向听话人同时表达数种言外行为或言外之意。关键词：语音歧义，词汇歧义，结构歧义，语用歧义Contents1 Introduction 61.1 Definition of Ambiguity in English.61.2 Importance of the Present Study.62 Phonetic Ambiguity.62.1 Phonetic ambiguity caused by homophones72.2 Phonetic ambiguity caused by phrases72.3 Phonetic ambiguity caused by different breath groups and different intonation.72.4 Phonetic ambiguity caused by stress.73 Lexical Ambiguity.83.1 Lexical Ambiguity caused by homonym83.2 Lexical Ambiguity caused by polysemy.94 Structural ambiguity.104.1 Sententially structural ambiguity.104.2 Phrasally structural ambiguity.125 Pragmatic ambiguity.135.1 Pragmatic ambiguity caused by implication135.2 Pragmatic ambiguity caused by transcultural background.146 Conclusion.15 1 Introduction1.1 Definition of Ambiguity in EnglishAmbiguity, as is defined in the Websters Third International Dictionary(许素波，Types of Ambiguity in English，1999-04), is “the condition of admitting of two or more meanings, of being understood in more than one way, or of referring to two or more things at the same time.” In ordinary books on linguistics, it is generally defined roughly as linguistic phenomenon that a word phrase or clause can have more than one interpretation. Ambiguity, as a pervasive feature of the English language, existing in both spoken and written forms, and occurs for a variety of reasons, such as the phonetic reason that in connected speech, two or more different strings of lexical items happen to take on the same phonological form as a result of sound liaison, the lexical reason, for instance, ambiguity can be given rise to owing to the homonymy and polysemy of the vocabulary, and the structural reason, namely ambiguity can also be attributed to different grammatical analysis of a phrase or clause.Ambiguity can exist in both spoken and written forms of English and arise through a variety of ways. From a purely linguistic point of view, however, ambiguity can be accounted for by mainly four factors: the phonetic, the lexical, the structural, and the pragmatic, hence four types of ambiguity occur: phonetic ambiguity, lexical ambiguity, structural ambiguity, and pragmatic ambiguity.1.2 Importance of the Present StudyThrough the present study of ambiguity, we can avoid misunderstanding caused by ambiguity effectively. Meanwhile, this