Ambiguity In The English Language Study

Ambiguity is an important feature of our language. And it is also an interesting topic and its study has a long tradition. Many scholars have been researching it from different points of view. Such examples exist in English at various linguistic levels. Many language schools have done studies on the topic in the history. The earliest study is traced back to the ancient European country. The discussion about linguistic ambiguity is not new, so this paper will begin with a brief review of the history. After that, the detailed examples in English will be illustrated and discussed. It has been divided into four parts: ambiguity at phonological level, ambiguity at lexical level, ambiguity at grammatical level and ambiguity at pragmatic level. At each level, re-discussion about the ambiguity has been hold.Furthermore, the cause of ambiguity has been discussed from different studies in the field. At last, application of linguistic ambiguity is naturally talked. The ambiguity feature of language sometimes can hinder our communication and give others misunderstanding, but it has its application in some specific ways as well. Because of that, linguistic ambiguity can be seen as a sword that has two blades. The negative side should be avoided to make our writing or speech more accurate. The positive side should be studied to make use of it in literature words which will become more interesting and vivid. That is why we have to do our utmost to study ambiguity in English. The last part of this paper will give some methods to avoid the ambiguity and to appreciate the ambiguous"beauty". Although the discussion in this paper is mainly based on Chinese and Eng=lish examples, hopefully this discussion will shed some lights on the universal features of all.