Daniel Kies Department of English College of DuPage
Modern English Grammar English 2126		Contact Form

Grammatical Ambiguity

Words, as we know, often have more than one meaning, and that is the classic instance of ambiguity. Ambiguity has another sense, however. Occasionally, phrases and clauses create ambiguity because their structures may be interpreted in more than one way, leading to different meanings for the sentence as a whole. Such ambiguity is called 'grammatical ambiguity.'

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Compare tables (1) and (2) for an example of grammatical ambiguity.

(1) An example of grammatical ambiguity at the phrase rank, interpreting her duck as a noun phrase

EXAMPLE	I	saw	her	duck.
FORM	Pronoun	Verb	Determiner [Noun	Noun Phrase]
FUNCTION	Subject	Verb	Object

(2) An example of grammatical ambiguity at the phrase rank, interpreting duck as a subordinate clause

EXAMPLE	I	saw	her	duck.
FORM	Pronoun	Verb	Pronoun	Infinitive Verb
FUNCTION	Subject	Verb	Direct Object	Subordinate Clause

At the clause rank, ambiguity arises when clause constituents can be interpreted as having two or more functions. Consider the clause They found me a good worker, where the functions of the last two constituents can vary, creating two different meanings. Compare tables (3) and (4).

(3) An example of grammatical ambiguity at the clause rank, interpreting me as an indirect object (meaning "They found a good worker for me")

EXAMPLE	They	found	me	a good worker.
FUNCTION	Subject	Verb	Indirect Object	Direct Object

Now compare example (4).

(4) An example of grammatical ambiguity at the clause rank, interpreting me as a direct object (meaning "They feel that I am a good worker")

EXAMPLE	They	found	me	a good worker.
FUNCTION	Subject	Verb	Direct Object	Object Complement

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