₦airaland Forum

Surulady:
ADORABLE.......GOD I WANT THEM DUBLE..TRIPPLE..QUADRUPLET JUST LET THEM COME MY LOVE FOR BABIES

noble234:
Just get a raw aloe Vera plant and apply it on our face.

Use it in the morning after bath, and in the evening like an hour before U sleep.

I have the plants if anyone needs it

Produke:
Pictures

UNIQUEISRAEL:
The statement, "A mother beat up her daughter because she was drunk" is a clear case of ambiguity. In English, ambiguity is a situation where a sentence can be interpreted in more than one way. Ambiguous expressions, either caused by a phrase or a word/lexical item, are always difficult to be given precise meanings.


There are two types of ambiguity:

1. Lexical ambiguity.

2. Structural ambiguity.


In lexical ambiguity, a word, usually a polysemous word, will make a sentence to have more than one meaning. For example, the word, "grace" in the sentence, "Everyone needs grace to make it in life". This sentence is ambiguous, (that is, it can be interpreted in more than one way) because of the presence of the polysemous word, "grace". Is it that everyone needs grace (as a person) to make it in life, or we need the grace (of God) to make it in life? These are two possible questions that will marry the mind of a reader who comes across such sentence, and this will inarguably leave a reader in a state of confusion while trying to ascertain the intended meaning of a writer.
Structural ambiguity occurs when a phrase makes a sentence to have more than one possible meaning. For example, the phrase, "the shooting of the robbers", in the sentence, "The shooting of the robbers came as a shock", makes the sentence ambiguous. Is it that the shooting (operation) which was done by the robbers came as a shock, or the act of shooting the robbers came as a shock? These are two possible ways one can interpret the sentence.
Having said that, let's analyse our sentence of study:


"A Mother beat up her daughter because she was drunk."


The question is, "who was drunk?". The truth of the matter is that no one can precisely state or tell who was drunk between them because the sentence is assigned with more than one interpretation. The ambiguity of this sentence is caused by the lexical item, she, which is a pronoun. The speaker or writer (of the sentence) assigned two antecedents, "a mother" and "her daughter", to the pronoun, "she", without clearly stating which of the antecedents the pronoun is referring to, thereby making it difficult for the listener or reader to give a precise interpretation to the sentence. So, while some would say that it was the mother who was drunk, others would argue that it was the daughter who was drunk. We don't need to blame them for the different interpretations because the sentence does not carry a precise meaning.


However, only the speaker or writer of such sentence can state/give its actual meaning although that doesn't disambiguate the sentence. But what happens in a case like this where the speaker is unknown or can't be found to give the actual interpretation of the sentence? In a case like this, one will only resort to disambiguating the sentence in order to get a precise meaning. To disambiguate means to give a precise or one interpretation to a sentence or construction which can be interpreted in more than one way. The question now is, "how can one disambiguate or give a precise interpretation to our sentence of study?"


HOW TO DISAMBIGUATE THE SENTENCE, "A MOTHER BEAT UP HER DAUGHTER BECAUSE SHE WAS DRUNK."


We can disambiguate the sentence by either of the following ways:


1. Inserting a more definite noun phrase "the daughter" and deleting the pronoun "she". So, the sentence should read:


"A mother beat up her daughter because the daughter was drunk."


2. By inserting the appositive phrase "the mother" after "she". So, the sentence should read:


"A mother beat up her daughter because she, the mother, was drunk".


3. Inserting the adjectives (that are nominalised),"former" and "latter", to refer to "mother" and "daughter" respectively:


"A mother beat up her daughter because the former was drunk." (In this case, the mother is the one who was drunk)


or


"A mother beat up her daughter because the latter was drunk. (In this case, it is her daughter who was drunk).


In sum, ambiguous sentences make it difficult for a reader or listener to understand a speaker's intent. Therefore, for easy comprehension of a statement, a speaker should avoid using ambiguous sentences.

Sanchez01:
The statement does not make sense. Why? It is ambiguous and ambiguity leads to vagueness.

Example;

1. Why did the mother beat up her child? Because she was drunk. (Who was??)
Implied: A. The mother beat up her child because she (her child) was drunk.
B. The mother beat up her child because she (herself) was drunk.

A statement that can be interpreted either ways in English language is vague (owing to ambiguity) as there are no specifics. This one is useless.