Ambiguity Study From The Perspective Of Spatial Domain

Ambiguity is ubiquitous in every human language and can occur at all levels--from phonetics, semantics, structure to pragmatics, which is one of the features that help distinguish natural human language from artificial language. Many researches have been done on ambiguity. Most of these researches analyze ambiguity from the perspective of phonetics, lexis and syntax. However, none of these studies can interpret ambiguity in sentences such as "John saw Peter on the bus". Therefore, the primary objective of the present study is to interpret ambiguity in sentences mentioned before with mental space theory and figure and ground theory from the perspective of space comparison. The second objective of this thesis is trying to sum up the occasion when ambiguity may occur in sentences such as "John saw Peter on the bus". According to the mathematical formula permutation (P_n~r = n(n-1)...(n-r+1) = n!/(n-r)!), there are several occasions.As for ambiguous sentences like "John saw Peter on the bus", suppose the verb-built space is represented by "V" and prepositional phrase-built space is represented by "P", and real-life space "R" in this thesis.â‘ Both V and P Represent Virtual Spaceâ‘¡V Represents Real-Life Space and P Represents Virtual Spaceâ‘¢V Represents Virtual Space, P Represents Real-Life Spaceâ‘£Both V and P Represent Real-Life SpaceIn a word, when V>P or the space of V,P is undecided, ambiguity may occur.This study is of a far-reaching significance for ambiguity exploration and plays a vital role in the development of language theory and in language teaching and learning, too. As for the teachers, the study serves as a reminder to them that while organizing students to study language, they should pay great attention to the form of language and what is more, the communicative function of language should be stressed. As for the students, the study can help them understand that there is a subtle and complex association between the form and the meaning and further form a comprehensive linguistic viewpoint and master language as a whole.