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E

English Apr 30, 2022

E. Syntactic Ambiguity (8 points): 51. The following sentence is ambiguous. Draw two trees to illustrate how it
is ambiguous. "We will sell gasoline to anyone in a glass container." 52. The following sentence is ambiguous.
Draw a tree that disambiguates it. You only need 1 tree. "The old man the boat."

Expert Solution

1. We will sell gasoline to anyone in a glass container.

 

1st Sentence:

 

                                  We will sell gasoline to anyone. (S)

 

                                  We                                               (VP)

 

                                  (P)                 will sell gasoline              to anyone  

                                                             (VP)      (N)                    (Prep. P)

 

                                                     will          sell                       to           anyone

                                                     (AV)         (V)                     (Prep)         (N)

 

 

2nd Sentence

 

                                   The gasoline is in the glass container. (S)

 

                                             (NP)                                         (VP)

                                The          gasoline                   is                           (Prep. P)      

                                (Det.)            (N)                       (LV)            in the glass container   

 

                                                                                                      in                            (NP)      

                                                                                                     (prep.)         the      glass container

                                                                                                                         (det.)              (NP)

                                                                                                                                      glass     container

                                                                                                                                          (N)           (N)

 

 

 

 

2. The old man the boat. 

 

                           The old man          sells the boat (S)

                                     (NP)                         (VP)

 

                 the             (Adj. P)            sells              (NP)

              (Det.)        old        man          (V)           the      boat

                                (Adj.)      (N)                          (Det.)    (N)   

                                                           

 

Step-by-step explanation

 1. We will sell gasoline to anyone in a glass container.

- Syntactic ambiguity is the presence of two or more possible meanings within a single sentence. This sentence is ambiguous because it gives two possible meanings. The meanings could be "We will sell gasoline to anyone" or "The gasoline is in the glass container."  To show the ambiguity, the tree diagram is structured for each sentence following the legend below. 

S - Sentence

NP - Noun Phrase

VP - Verb Phrase

P - Pronoun

N - Noun

V - Verb

LV - Linking Verb

Prep. P - Prepositional Phrase

AV - Auxilliary Verb

Prep. - Preposition

Det. - Determiners

 

2. The old man the boat.

- This sentence shows ambiguity because of having two meanings - "the man"  and "the boat."  To disambiguate this sentence, we added a new verb "sells" to give the sentence a new meaning.  "The old man sells the boat."  In the tree diagram, the new verb was used to make the sentence ambiguity free. Below is the legend for the new sentence to understand the tree diagram. 

 

S - Sentence

NP - Noun Phrase

VP - Verb Phrase

N - Noun

V - Verb

Adj. P - Adjective Phrase

Adj. - Adjective

Det. - Determiners

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