Structural Ambiguity: According to

Structural Ambiguity: According to transformationlists , there are
two distinct deep structures expressing , on the one hand ,the fact that :
1-Annie had an umbrella and she whacked a man with it and , on the other
hand ,that :
2- Annie whacked a man and the man happened to be carrying an umbrella
are actually represented in the same surface structure form ; notice :
3-Annie whacked a man with an umbrella .
This last sentence is 'syntactically' ambiguous in the sense that is has
two different underlying interpretations which would be represented
differently in the deep structure ,as stated in (1)and (2) above .
Even phrases , however can also be 'syntactically ' or ( structurally )
ambiguous ,as in the expression below :
1- The hatred of the killers
Which could mean either :
2- Someone hated the killers .or
3- The killers hated someone .
The case ,as such ,indicates that "killers" stands in subject-verb
relation as well as in object –verb relation , and this accounts for the
ambiguity of the superficial structure of (1) above .
Moreover , let us exemplify the case further by illustrative
examples like :
1-an American history teacher .
Which, as it appears on the surface ,is structurally ambiguous as it
admits of the two interpretations : العدد الثامن والثالثون ممجل ددالل / 2009
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2-a teacher of American history . and
3- an American teacher of history .
A phrase like the one mentioned above normally confirms to a
pattern like : {Determiner +Adjective +Noun +Noun } .In this
regard ,Stageberg (1981: 252) illustrates the case by introducing this
example :
4- a decent college graduate.
Which involves a sort of ambiguity due to the following two
interpretations :
5- graduate of a decent college ,or
6- a decent graduate of college .
The ambiguity of (4) above arises from the fact that the
adjective, in this case "decent " may modify either the first noun ,i.e
'college' or the second noun ,i.e 'graduate' .
Notice ,however , that sentences like these show a sort of
ambiguity:
1- Flying planes can be dangerous.
2- Visiting aunts can be a nuisance.
3- The parents of the bride and the groom were waiting.
With regard to the ambiguity 0f (1) above , we can say that , as
such , the sentence may be interpreted as:
a- For someone to fly planes/ a plane can be dangerous .
Notice that "flying” is interpreted as a transitive verb with an
implicit subject, whereas the second interpretation, i.e.
b- Planes, when flying can be dangerous.
exposes the fact that "flying " is being interpreted as a modifier
modifying the succeeding noun ,i.e ' planes ' .The same explications
can be made with reference to the ambiguous sentence(2) above.
But what about sentence (3) ,i.e ."The parents of the bride and
groom were waiting ".The sentence, as it stands, is ambiguous, and
its ambiguity arises from the obscure sense which leaves us
wondering whether:
a. The parents of the bride were waiting.
b. The parents of the groom were waiting. العدد الثامن والثالثون ممجل ددالل / 2009
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c. The parents of the bride were waiting ,and so was the groom.
d. The parents of the bride and the parents of the groom were
waiting.
In order for us to remove the ambiguity , we have to stick to one
meaning , that which is intended ; in this case only , the ambiguity
is cleared off ,i.e by picking out any of the interpretations
mentioned above , especially (c) and (d) .