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28: Lexical and Syntactic Ambiguity


A Thesis Of Observation

Linguistic Ambiguities

Semantical & Syntactical Dominancies


Written By: Atelston Fitzgerald Holder 1st

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Today I was strolling down a Broadwalk near the Westside Highway in Manhattan by the Ocean, introspecting in solitude embracing my wondrous infatuation for creative abstractions. I sporadically stumbled across this ‘sign’ and was in awe of its ambiguous nature..

Syntactic and lexical ambiguity is very pervasive in linguistics, and although the language intentions might have an objective sensationalistic interpretation, it can also be a misconstrued manipulative device. My primary focus is the latent interpretative incongruity thats oblivious to many of us.

Dog Free Area: Can be interpreted as ‘Dogs are not allowed’
Dog Free Area: Can also be interpreted as ‘There are no dogs in this area’

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Although the latter seems like a subset of the former denotational semantical interpretations, it’s still an ambiguity thats more prevalent within its semantical meaning rather than its syntactical context.

The sign is syntactically ambiguous, and although the denotational meaning is subjectively predetermined by the unanimous initiators of the sign, it’s still a linguistic semantical presupposition, or the initial observer was oblivious to the ambiguity.

The dominating ambiguity is determined by its syntactical attributes, However, we can also approach this from a lexical perspective and assume Free is the distinctive mechanism that evokes the syntactical ambiguities.

Free: amnesty, liberty, exonerate, grant freedom etc
Free: giveaway, share, charity etc..!

Free is a noun ‘thing’ Therefore Free being the lexically ambiguous attributes can alter the entire semantical meaning, However Dog is also lexically ambiguous, being a noun ‘animal’ and also multiple non literal ambiguities, specifically, metaphorical analogical idiomatic and similes.

Dog: Interactive: Whats up dog? Metaphor
Dog: Narrative: Every dog has his day Idiom
Dog: Derogative: He treats me like a dog Simile
Dog: Comparative: Dog eats food, so does a car needs gas Analogy

Dog and Free are both lexically ambiguous words, and this eradicates the subset idea of lexicality being the prevalent core that preludes or initiates the syntactic factor. Multiple lexicality within syntactic context actually makes the syntactical ambiguity dominant and it supersedes in semantical ambiguous interpretations.

Area: being a noun ‘place’ is also ambiguous
Area: ‘Area as in location’
Area: ‘Area as in field of study’

All three words share the same fundamental common denominator in terms of their descriptive essence, ‘noun’, Descriptive attributes contributes immensely to ambiguous potentiality, and juxtaposing multiple descriptive words syntactically can instigate multiple ambiguous vague triggers, resulting in denotational or subsets of denotational semantical interpretations.

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I once read an article where lexical ambiguity superseded syntactic ambiguity in newspapers headline dominance, sometimes a journalist will manipulate the headlines with ulterior motives, or its an ambiguity unnoticed or misinterpreted by an opposition. When it comes to the syntactical aspect of ambiguity it becomes far more interpretatively complexed because of its morphological dynamics.

Im not an authority in the field of linguistics, i’m just a comedian that embraces absurdity with an uncannily infatuated comfort, i find things like indecisiveness, vague, skewed, ambiguity, polarization, contrast, incongruity, dichotomy, partitioning and all sorts of paradigmatically paradoxes a mentally enticing abstract quest, driven beyond the astronomical myriads of everyday cortextual triviality…!
The End…

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Article Written By: Atelston Fitzgerald Holder 1st

Stage Name: Mr Pregnant

Please do not distribute without written approval
Actor: www.youtube.com/mrpregnant
Musician: www.youtube.com/mrpregnantmusic
Feel free to contact me: mrpregnant@aol.com
Copyright 2014

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