Ambiguity of sense

Question 1

What is ambiguity?

Answer 1

An expression is said to be ambiguous if more than one meaning can be assigned to it

Question 2

Types of ambiguity

Answer 2

Lexical ambiguity - one lexical item that has multiple meanings (e.g. John discovered a mole)
Structural ambiguity - some syntactic features that make a sentence ambiguous (e.g. Competent men and women)
Scope ambiguity - a type of structural ambiguity (e.g. Everyone loves someone)

Question 3

Polysemy

Answer 3

When a word has two or more meanings that are at least vaguely related to each other (e.g. LEAF - PART OF A TREE - A PIECE OF PAPER)
A most frequent source of polysemy is the metaphorical extension.

Question 4

Homonymy & types of homonymy

Answer 4

When a word has two or more meanings that are not related to each other whatsoever (e.g. BANK - A FINANCIAL INSTITUTION - SIDE OF A RIVER)
Homophony is a type of homonymy in which words have the same pronunciation but different spelling and meaning (e.g. HEIR - AIR)
Homography is a type of homonymy where words have the same spelling but different pronunciation (e.g. BOW - BOW; TEAR - TEAR)
Patterned homonymy - when the lexical meaning of the homonym is known but they differ dramatically (e.g. ACT - N, V)
Partial homonymy - where one word form is a homonym to another word form (e.g. ROSE - PAST TENSE OF TO RISE & THE FLOWER)

Question 5

Metaphors

Answer 5

Used for extending the meaning of new words