Ambiguity is a pervasive phenomenon

Ambiguity is a pervasive phenomenon in human languages. It is very hard to find words
that are not at least two ways ambiguous, and sentences which are (out of context) several
ways ambiguous are the rule, not the exception. This is not only problematic because
some of the alternatives are unintended (i.e. represent wrong interpretations), but because
ambiguities ‘multiply’. In the worst case, a sentence containing two words, each of which
is two ways ambiguous may be four ways ambiguous ( 
), one with three such words
may be 


, ways ambiguous etc. One can, in this way, get very
large numbers indeed. For example, a sentence consisting of ten words, each two ways
ambiguous, and with just two possible structural analyses could have




different analyses. The number of analyses can be problematic, since one may have to
consider all of them, rejecting all but one.