A Systemic Approach To Ambiguity

The systemic approach to ambiguity of this thesis is preceded by a brief review of mainstream linguistic investigations on ambiguity, with the traditional definition and classification of ambiguity being first touched upon. It is argued that the opposition in traditional ambiguity studies can be largely reduced to whether ambiguity is a default or an inherent feature of language, which originates from the philosophical divergence regarding the nature of meaning. The view that ambiguity is abnormal is in a close relation to an adherence to definiteness of meaning in the logical positivism school. By contrast, the thought that ambiguity is unavoidable is attributable to a denial of definite meaning.The investigations into the nature of ambiguity from a systemic perspective fall into four parts. The first part delves on the nature of meaning from a diachronic perspective and brings forth a polemical conclusion. From the perspective of semohistory and consciousness construction, meaning is dynamic and relative by nature. Yet similarities, to some extent, of perceptions and experiences among human beings imply that the relativity of meaning is not so absolute as it appears. The second part, namely the grammatical metaphorical perspective, reveals that grammatical metaphor is the resource of grammatical ambiguity. Following Halliday's original grammatical metaphor model, grammatical ambiguity is classified into the ideational and interpersonal type. Then the immediately following part delves into the significance of grammatical ambiguity in realizing textual and interpersonal metafunctions. In the last part, it is revealed that the interactions between instantial grammatical metaphor and language system result in the condensation and distillation, which are in essence a process of ambiguation and disambiguation. It is therefore concluded that the grammatical metaphor in syndromes manifests the relative nature of meaning and thus the dynamic nature of ambiguity is inherent to language.The way of disambiguation is an area that attracts attention from almost all the scholars who have shown some concern for ambiguity. After a review of the traditional ways of disambiguation, it is argued in Chapter 4 disambiguation should beconducted in text and in culture as well. To further explicate the term "grammatical ambiguity", Chapter 5 gives an illustration on the relationship between ambiguity and some of its relative terms. Chapter 6 first offers a brief summary of the main points discussed in the thesis and then draws some tentative conclusions. This chapter ends the whole thesis by proposing some points worthy of future researches.