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摘 要：在英语学习或日常交流中我们经常会遇到一些不清楚的含有两个或多个意思的句子或表达。这类句子或表达就称作歧义。歧义经常会引起语言及信息交流的困难。文章介绍了一些引起句子歧义的因素，并用定性分析的方法对其进行了分析。
关键词：歧义；结构歧义
Abstract：In English learning or daily communication， we often encounter some unclear sentences or expressions which have two or more meanings called ambiguity. It usually makes exact expression and information transmission difficult. This paper introduces some factors causing ambiguity， and further analyzed them with quality analysis method.
Key words：ambiguity， syntactic ambiguity
1Background
Ambiguity has been a hot topic among linguistists for a long time both in home and aboard. There are syntactic ambiguity and lexical ambiguity. Syntactic ambiguity means there are more than one kind of understanding of the function of sentence structure units， the latter means there are different explanations for certain lexeme in a sentence. However， until now， most of the researches of this area are about lexical ambiguity. This paper will talk about the ambiguity in English from the syntactic point.
2 Ambiguity and factors causing syntactic ambiguity
2.1 Definition of ambiguity
In Webster’s Third New International Dictionary， ambiguity means with two or more implications or with more than one way of understanding at the same time， or refers to two or more subjects simultaneously. According to J.G. Kooij， ambiguity is the intrinsic attribute of a sentence that can be explained in many ways. Katie Wales claimed： “ambiguity has two or more meanings， an ambiguity express more than one interpretation， this concept has peculiar meaning in different discipline.” Based on the analysis and summary of definitions of ambiguity， this paper gives a definition， that is， ambiguity means two or more implications， and it gives explanations that more than one but are finite.
2.2 Factors that cause syntactic ambiguity
2.2.1Ambiguous modification
Ambiguous modification is mainly about the relation between the modifier and its modified parts.
①Ambiguous modification of prepositional phrase
Prepositional pharse can perform many functions in a sentence， this multi-function makes a sentence ambiguous. E.g I found the panda up a tree. The adverbial phrase up a tree may modify panda and act as the attribute of panda， or it may modify the whole sentence as a adverbial.
②Ambiguous modification of adjective phrase
This kind of ambiguity is mainly because the target being modified by the adjective phrase is unclear. （i） adj+NP+NP. E.g.They kidnapped the old coin collector. The adjective old can modify the “conin collector” or connect with coin to modify the collector.
（ii） ADJ+ADJ+NP E.g.They need more interesting books. Here there are two adjective words， more and interesting， so whether more is used to modify “intererting” as an adverb or it modify books together with interesting is ambiguous.
③Ambiguous modification of adverbial phrase
When adverbial phrase is between two verbs， then ambiguity comes from which verb it really modifies； when the adverbial phrase is at the end of a sentence， then what is unclear is whether it modifies the corresponding part or the whole sentence. E.g.My uncle presented his talk naturally. Adverb naturally is at the end of the sentence， so it can modify present， or modify the whole sentence.
2.2.2Function of sentence composition
Some compositions can perform many functions in the same sentence. E.g The man study the whole year. The composition the whole year can be the object of study or an adverbial. So this sentence has two interpretation ways， SVO， SV（A）.
2.2.3Stucture of coordination
Coordination means the compositions are of the same level of a sentence， when some compositions have relation with other parts of the sentence， then the hierachical relation may be coverd. E.g. That evening we stayed in doors reading and also writing letters.There is ambiguity because the compositions connected by “and”， namely， reading and writing can be either as a whole or two divided parts.
2.2.4Subordinate clause
Some subordinate clause has determinated location， but with uncertain functions. These kinds of ambiguous stucture are mainly nominal clause， adverbial clause and attributive clause. E.g.The physician asked to be telephoned if the patient was in coma. if clause can be nominal clause and acts as object or adverbial clause.
2.2.5The scope of negation
If the predicate of a sentence is negative and followed by a adverbial clause， then there might be ambiguity. E.g.The meeting was not called due to the airline strike.What the ambiguity is the negation not can either negate the word “call” or negate the adverbial of reason “due to the airline strike”.
2.2.6Improper ellipsis
In a sentence， if the conjunction， article， finite verb， prepositional object is omit， then the modify relation or sementic meaning may become obscure.E.g.He said yesterday he had finished the work. It is ambiguous because the conjunction that is omitted， thus the adverbial “yesterday” can both modify “had finished” and “said”. 3 Conclusion
3.1 A brief summary
Ambiguity is a common phenomenon in the natural language， it is ubiqutous and unavoidable. What we can do is to learn the causes of it and analyse it with these theories.
3.2 Limitations
There are some limitations of this paper. First， this paper only takes a view of syntactic ambiguity without considering the lexical ambiguity， sometimes there are relevance between them and cannot be divided completely. Second， this paper mainly use quality analysis， so there is a shortage of data basis. Besides， the paper just chose some representative examples， so there may have some exceptions. A further research is needed.
In a word， ambiguity is an important phenomenon in both English learning and daily communication， the study of it can provide a better understanding and interpretation of English， it has both theoretical and practical worth.
Reference：
[1]Gove. Philip Babcock. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English language.[M]. Springfield. Mass： G&C. Merriam Company.1976.
[2]Kooij JG. Ambiguity in Natural language.[M]. Amsterdam： North Holland Publishing Company.1971.
[3]Wales.Katie. A Dictionary of stylistics.[M]. London： Longman Group UK limited. 1989.
[4]程工.从对歧义句的分析看20世纪的句法学[J].解放军外语学院学报，1998.
[5]傅友相.英语句法歧义[J]. 四川外语学院学报，2002年.
[6]廖定中.蒋澄生，英语句法歧义简议[J]. 四川外国语学院学报，1998（2）83.
[7]王迎芬.浅析英语句法歧义[J].西南科技大学学报，2004（1）95-97.
关键词：歧义；结构歧义
Abstract：In English learning or daily communication， we often encounter some unclear sentences or expressions which have two or more meanings called ambiguity. It usually makes exact expression and information transmission difficult. This paper introduces some factors causing ambiguity， and further analyzed them with quality analysis method.
Key words：ambiguity， syntactic ambiguity
1Background
Ambiguity has been a hot topic among linguistists for a long time both in home and aboard. There are syntactic ambiguity and lexical ambiguity. Syntactic ambiguity means there are more than one kind of understanding of the function of sentence structure units， the latter means there are different explanations for certain lexeme in a sentence. However， until now， most of the researches of this area are about lexical ambiguity. This paper will talk about the ambiguity in English from the syntactic point.
2 Ambiguity and factors causing syntactic ambiguity
2.1 Definition of ambiguity
In Webster’s Third New International Dictionary， ambiguity means with two or more implications or with more than one way of understanding at the same time， or refers to two or more subjects simultaneously. According to J.G. Kooij， ambiguity is the intrinsic attribute of a sentence that can be explained in many ways. Katie Wales claimed： “ambiguity has two or more meanings， an ambiguity express more than one interpretation， this concept has peculiar meaning in different discipline.” Based on the analysis and summary of definitions of ambiguity， this paper gives a definition， that is， ambiguity means two or more implications， and it gives explanations that more than one but are finite.
2.2 Factors that cause syntactic ambiguity
2.2.1Ambiguous modification
Ambiguous modification is mainly about the relation between the modifier and its modified parts.
①Ambiguous modification of prepositional phrase
Prepositional pharse can perform many functions in a sentence， this multi-function makes a sentence ambiguous. E.g I found the panda up a tree. The adverbial phrase up a tree may modify panda and act as the attribute of panda， or it may modify the whole sentence as a adverbial.
②Ambiguous modification of adjective phrase
This kind of ambiguity is mainly because the target being modified by the adjective phrase is unclear. （i） adj+NP+NP. E.g.They kidnapped the old coin collector. The adjective old can modify the “conin collector” or connect with coin to modify the collector.
（ii） ADJ+ADJ+NP E.g.They need more interesting books. Here there are two adjective words， more and interesting， so whether more is used to modify “intererting” as an adverb or it modify books together with interesting is ambiguous.
③Ambiguous modification of adverbial phrase
When adverbial phrase is between two verbs， then ambiguity comes from which verb it really modifies； when the adverbial phrase is at the end of a sentence， then what is unclear is whether it modifies the corresponding part or the whole sentence. E.g.My uncle presented his talk naturally. Adverb naturally is at the end of the sentence， so it can modify present， or modify the whole sentence.
2.2.2Function of sentence composition
Some compositions can perform many functions in the same sentence. E.g The man study the whole year. The composition the whole year can be the object of study or an adverbial. So this sentence has two interpretation ways， SVO， SV（A）.
2.2.3Stucture of coordination
Coordination means the compositions are of the same level of a sentence， when some compositions have relation with other parts of the sentence， then the hierachical relation may be coverd. E.g. That evening we stayed in doors reading and also writing letters.There is ambiguity because the compositions connected by “and”， namely， reading and writing can be either as a whole or two divided parts.
2.2.4Subordinate clause
Some subordinate clause has determinated location， but with uncertain functions. These kinds of ambiguous stucture are mainly nominal clause， adverbial clause and attributive clause. E.g.The physician asked to be telephoned if the patient was in coma. if clause can be nominal clause and acts as object or adverbial clause.
2.2.5The scope of negation
If the predicate of a sentence is negative and followed by a adverbial clause， then there might be ambiguity. E.g.The meeting was not called due to the airline strike.What the ambiguity is the negation not can either negate the word “call” or negate the adverbial of reason “due to the airline strike”.
2.2.6Improper ellipsis
In a sentence， if the conjunction， article， finite verb， prepositional object is omit， then the modify relation or sementic meaning may become obscure.E.g.He said yesterday he had finished the work. It is ambiguous because the conjunction that is omitted， thus the adverbial “yesterday” can both modify “had finished” and “said”. 3 Conclusion
3.1 A brief summary
Ambiguity is a common phenomenon in the natural language， it is ubiqutous and unavoidable. What we can do is to learn the causes of it and analyse it with these theories.
3.2 Limitations
There are some limitations of this paper. First， this paper only takes a view of syntactic ambiguity without considering the lexical ambiguity， sometimes there are relevance between them and cannot be divided completely. Second， this paper mainly use quality analysis， so there is a shortage of data basis. Besides， the paper just chose some representative examples， so there may have some exceptions. A further research is needed.
In a word， ambiguity is an important phenomenon in both English learning and daily communication， the study of it can provide a better understanding and interpretation of English， it has both theoretical and practical worth.
Reference：
[1]Gove. Philip Babcock. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English language.[M]. Springfield. Mass： G&C. Merriam Company.1976.
[2]Kooij JG. Ambiguity in Natural language.[M]. Amsterdam： North Holland Publishing Company.1971.
[3]Wales.Katie. A Dictionary of stylistics.[M]. London： Longman Group UK limited. 1989.
[4]程工.从对歧义句的分析看20世纪的句法学[J].解放军外语学院学报，1998.
[5]傅友相.英语句法歧义[J]. 四川外语学院学报，2002年.
[6]廖定中.蒋澄生，英语句法歧义简议[J]. 四川外国语学院学报，1998（2）83.
[7]王迎芬.浅析英语句法歧义[J].西南科技大学学报，2004（1）95-97.