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University of International Business and Economics School of International Studies/Liu Siyu
【Abstract】This essay briefly introduces the factors of communication ambiguity and makes an analysis on them.Accordingly，several suggestions are given to help people to deal with the difficulties it brings to their life.In terms of the influence of communication ambiguity，the essay mainly focuses on the positive side.
Language initially comes from people’s need for exchanging information and communicating.Ambiguity，which is explained as “a word，expression，etc.，that can have more than one meaning” in Webster’s Dictionary，is a common phenomenon in conversations in all kinds of language.Conversation ambiguity does cause inconvenience in people’s daily life，however，it also has positive impacts.The analysis of its influence will mainly focus on the latter in English conversation.
There are three important factors of conversation ambiguity，and they are phonological，lexical and structural ambiguities.The three of them sometimes works independently，sometimes mix with each other.A conversation ambiguity in daily life is usually a result of complicated factors.
Firstly，phonological ambiguity is about the pronunciation of words.The same pronunciation of words with different meanings is one of the main factors.For example，if some says “give me the [‘flau?]，please” to you，how can you figure out whether she wants to bake a cake or buy some flowers？ If you ask your friend where he plans to visit during the summer holiday，he tells you “[si：]”.Does it mean that he plans to go to the sea or asks you to see the fight ticket on his desk？ Also，liaison and deleted sound causes a lot of difficulties in English communication.The word which gives me deep impression is “ma’am”.It was really hard for me to distinguish “ma’am” from “mum” when I did the English listening practice in high school because of their similar pronunciation.
Secondly，lexical ambiguity is based on the different meanings of the same word.If you are told that Lucy is a sweet girl，you can understand it in two ways.One is that Lucy is very lovely； the other is that Lucy is crazy about candies （sweets）.Which one is the message the speaker wants to express？ What’s more，many phrases have new meanings during its development.Is “break your legs” a malicious curse or a sincere blessing？ Moreover，the differences between British English and American English may sometimes cause conversation ambiguity.“The first floor” means the floor which is on the ground in AmE.，however，it means the floor which is above the one on the ground in BrE.，and the floor on the ground is called “the ground floor” in BrE.As a result of countless cases like “the floor” one，it always causes incorrect understanding and embarrassing troubles in the conversation between British and American though English is the mother tongue for both of them. Thirdly，structural ambiguity is caused by people’s different understanding toward the structure of the sentences.The word “not” usually plays an important role in causing conversation ambiguity in English and other languages，which is whether it means partial negation or full negation.“I do not play computer games all the time” can be understood in two ways.One is “I never play computer games”； the other is “I don’t play computer games for the whole day，just for a while”.Some subordinate clauses always make people confused.For instance，“I saw Mary in the bus” has three possible meanings.I may saw Mary when I was in the bus but she was not，I may saw that Mary was in the bus but I was not，or we met each other in the bus.The real reason of the confusing meanings is that we are not sure which part of the sentence the adverbial modifies.
Besides，there are also some other factors of conversation ambiguity，such as cultural ambiguity.People from different cultures have different understanding of some specific words.Chinese always consider “dragon” as a positive and powerful image，while Western people think it means evil.Hence，it’s hard for Westerners to get Chinese’s point when they talk about dragon.Cultural ambiguity mainly happens on the intercultural conversation.
Though the analysis of the factors of conversation ambiguity above may be not overall enough，it can help us to build a brief understanding of them.Based on the examples，we can find that conversation ambiguity does influence our daily life.How can we deal with the difficulties it brings to us？ I think there are three solutions of it.First，for the speaker，replace the words which may cause ambiguity.Let’s take “Lucy is a sweet girl” as an example.We can change “sweet” into “lovely” or “candy” to avoid conversation ambiguity.Second，for the listener，understand the sentence according to the circumstances.If some ask for the [‘flau?]on the kitchen，it would be the flour； if the conversation happens in the flower store，it would be the flower.However，the first two solutions may lose its effectiveness under some special conditions； in this case，we need to turn to the third one.More information and explanations will give a great help to both the speaker and the listener.Providing more information can help to avoid conversation ambiguity； asking for more information can eliminate the misunderstanding of the message.This is really important especially on the fields of business，politics and laws； otherwise，it may cause loss and disadvantages. However，conversation ambiguity also has positive influence and people tend to apply it to their daily life on purpose since long ago.
Conversation ambiguity can help people to express their opinions or feelings in an indirect，to some extent，more acceptable way.There is a conversation in the American TV series Modern Family S01E08 which shows how people use conversation ambiguity on purpose.The conversation is as follows：
（Jay： the grandpa； Haley： the elder granddaughter； Alex： the younger granddaughter）
（Haley was invited to Jay’s house for a pajama party，but she would like to go the party of her friends，so she asks Jay for leave）
Haley： It’s at my friend Andrew Alder’s.He lives three blocks from here.
Jay： Oh，walking distance.
Haley： Right.So I wouldn’t ask you this，because I like coming to your house，but it’s kind of an important party，and I-
Jay： Yes.Somebody invites you over，the last thing you wanna do is insult him.
Haley： Exactly.
Jay： I’m glad we agree.
（Jay walks away）
Haley： Oh，my god！ That was so easy.This is awesome.（Text her friend）
Alex： You really don’t understand what just happened there，do you？
Jay： P.J.’s on，Haley！
Haley： What？
In the conversation between Jay and Haley，we can find out that Jay made use of the conversation ambiguity to reject Haley’ request indirectly，but Haley did not recognize that.The word “somebody” played an important role in it.Jay used it on purpose and it actually referred to Jay.What Jay wanted to express is that he invited Haley to his house and it was not polite to ask for leave.In Haley’s perspective，“somebody” means her friend，so she misunderstood that Jay allowed her to leave.Jay used the conversation ambiguity to reject Haley as well as express his unhappiness in an implicit way.
There’s another example.Suppose one of your homework group members made a big mistake and everybody thought she ruined the whole work of the group.You feel it’s inappropriate to blame her directly when she asks you whether you think it is her fault，but you don’t want to lie，too.Under such condition，you would probably say，“I don’t think it’s all your fault.” She would understand it as that you think she has no fault，while what you really mean is that you think she did do something wrong though it’s not only her responsibility.The conversation ambiguity helps you again.It not only protects your relationship with others but also prevents you from lying. Conversation ambiguity also makes humorous effects in daily life.I used to see a sentence on the Internet which was really interesting.It is “we must all hang together，or we shall all hang separately”.It means that we will be killed if we cannot work with each other，while it also leads to another understanding.This sentence makes use of the different meanings of the word “hang” in order to make it full of humor.Just like this one，many puns are from the conversation ambiguity.
Conversation ambiguity also helps many American TV series to be more funny and attractive magically for their audiences.Two Broken Girls and the Big Bang Theory are the typical examples of them.What Sheldon said in Howard and Bernadette’s wedding ceremony left me a deep impression.Sheldon said that he hoped they two could find fun from each other as much as he found from himself，and people laughed.Why？ There is a kind of conversation ambiguity，because “find fun from oneself” can also be regarded as masturbation.With the help of conversation ambiguity，American TV series has developed its way to achieve comic effect which makes the audience laugh knowingly.
In my point of view，overcoming and reducing the negative impacts of conversation ambiguity asks for people’s deeper analysis and understanding toward it.Some of the factors are rooted in the history and culture，so it needs us to learn more especially under the trend of internationalization.At the same time，the positive side of conversation ambiguity does make our life more enjoyable and help us deal with some embarrassing situations.We should realize the positive impacts it brings to us and make use of it，as well as discover more potentials of it.
【Abstract】This essay briefly introduces the factors of communication ambiguity and makes an analysis on them.Accordingly，several suggestions are given to help people to deal with the difficulties it brings to their life.In terms of the influence of communication ambiguity，the essay mainly focuses on the positive side.
Language initially comes from people’s need for exchanging information and communicating.Ambiguity，which is explained as “a word，expression，etc.，that can have more than one meaning” in Webster’s Dictionary，is a common phenomenon in conversations in all kinds of language.Conversation ambiguity does cause inconvenience in people’s daily life，however，it also has positive impacts.The analysis of its influence will mainly focus on the latter in English conversation.
There are three important factors of conversation ambiguity，and they are phonological，lexical and structural ambiguities.The three of them sometimes works independently，sometimes mix with each other.A conversation ambiguity in daily life is usually a result of complicated factors.
Firstly，phonological ambiguity is about the pronunciation of words.The same pronunciation of words with different meanings is one of the main factors.For example，if some says “give me the [‘flau?]，please” to you，how can you figure out whether she wants to bake a cake or buy some flowers？ If you ask your friend where he plans to visit during the summer holiday，he tells you “[si：]”.Does it mean that he plans to go to the sea or asks you to see the fight ticket on his desk？ Also，liaison and deleted sound causes a lot of difficulties in English communication.The word which gives me deep impression is “ma’am”.It was really hard for me to distinguish “ma’am” from “mum” when I did the English listening practice in high school because of their similar pronunciation.
Secondly，lexical ambiguity is based on the different meanings of the same word.If you are told that Lucy is a sweet girl，you can understand it in two ways.One is that Lucy is very lovely； the other is that Lucy is crazy about candies （sweets）.Which one is the message the speaker wants to express？ What’s more，many phrases have new meanings during its development.Is “break your legs” a malicious curse or a sincere blessing？ Moreover，the differences between British English and American English may sometimes cause conversation ambiguity.“The first floor” means the floor which is on the ground in AmE.，however，it means the floor which is above the one on the ground in BrE.，and the floor on the ground is called “the ground floor” in BrE.As a result of countless cases like “the floor” one，it always causes incorrect understanding and embarrassing troubles in the conversation between British and American though English is the mother tongue for both of them. Thirdly，structural ambiguity is caused by people’s different understanding toward the structure of the sentences.The word “not” usually plays an important role in causing conversation ambiguity in English and other languages，which is whether it means partial negation or full negation.“I do not play computer games all the time” can be understood in two ways.One is “I never play computer games”； the other is “I don’t play computer games for the whole day，just for a while”.Some subordinate clauses always make people confused.For instance，“I saw Mary in the bus” has three possible meanings.I may saw Mary when I was in the bus but she was not，I may saw that Mary was in the bus but I was not，or we met each other in the bus.The real reason of the confusing meanings is that we are not sure which part of the sentence the adverbial modifies.
Besides，there are also some other factors of conversation ambiguity，such as cultural ambiguity.People from different cultures have different understanding of some specific words.Chinese always consider “dragon” as a positive and powerful image，while Western people think it means evil.Hence，it’s hard for Westerners to get Chinese’s point when they talk about dragon.Cultural ambiguity mainly happens on the intercultural conversation.
Though the analysis of the factors of conversation ambiguity above may be not overall enough，it can help us to build a brief understanding of them.Based on the examples，we can find that conversation ambiguity does influence our daily life.How can we deal with the difficulties it brings to us？ I think there are three solutions of it.First，for the speaker，replace the words which may cause ambiguity.Let’s take “Lucy is a sweet girl” as an example.We can change “sweet” into “lovely” or “candy” to avoid conversation ambiguity.Second，for the listener，understand the sentence according to the circumstances.If some ask for the [‘flau?]on the kitchen，it would be the flour； if the conversation happens in the flower store，it would be the flower.However，the first two solutions may lose its effectiveness under some special conditions； in this case，we need to turn to the third one.More information and explanations will give a great help to both the speaker and the listener.Providing more information can help to avoid conversation ambiguity； asking for more information can eliminate the misunderstanding of the message.This is really important especially on the fields of business，politics and laws； otherwise，it may cause loss and disadvantages. However，conversation ambiguity also has positive influence and people tend to apply it to their daily life on purpose since long ago.
Conversation ambiguity can help people to express their opinions or feelings in an indirect，to some extent，more acceptable way.There is a conversation in the American TV series Modern Family S01E08 which shows how people use conversation ambiguity on purpose.The conversation is as follows：
（Jay： the grandpa； Haley： the elder granddaughter； Alex： the younger granddaughter）
（Haley was invited to Jay’s house for a pajama party，but she would like to go the party of her friends，so she asks Jay for leave）
Haley： It’s at my friend Andrew Alder’s.He lives three blocks from here.
Jay： Oh，walking distance.
Haley： Right.So I wouldn’t ask you this，because I like coming to your house，but it’s kind of an important party，and I-
Jay： Yes.Somebody invites you over，the last thing you wanna do is insult him.
Haley： Exactly.
Jay： I’m glad we agree.
（Jay walks away）
Haley： Oh，my god！ That was so easy.This is awesome.（Text her friend）
Alex： You really don’t understand what just happened there，do you？
Jay： P.J.’s on，Haley！
Haley： What？
In the conversation between Jay and Haley，we can find out that Jay made use of the conversation ambiguity to reject Haley’ request indirectly，but Haley did not recognize that.The word “somebody” played an important role in it.Jay used it on purpose and it actually referred to Jay.What Jay wanted to express is that he invited Haley to his house and it was not polite to ask for leave.In Haley’s perspective，“somebody” means her friend，so she misunderstood that Jay allowed her to leave.Jay used the conversation ambiguity to reject Haley as well as express his unhappiness in an implicit way.
There’s another example.Suppose one of your homework group members made a big mistake and everybody thought she ruined the whole work of the group.You feel it’s inappropriate to blame her directly when she asks you whether you think it is her fault，but you don’t want to lie，too.Under such condition，you would probably say，“I don’t think it’s all your fault.” She would understand it as that you think she has no fault，while what you really mean is that you think she did do something wrong though it’s not only her responsibility.The conversation ambiguity helps you again.It not only protects your relationship with others but also prevents you from lying. Conversation ambiguity also makes humorous effects in daily life.I used to see a sentence on the Internet which was really interesting.It is “we must all hang together，or we shall all hang separately”.It means that we will be killed if we cannot work with each other，while it also leads to another understanding.This sentence makes use of the different meanings of the word “hang” in order to make it full of humor.Just like this one，many puns are from the conversation ambiguity.
Conversation ambiguity also helps many American TV series to be more funny and attractive magically for their audiences.Two Broken Girls and the Big Bang Theory are the typical examples of them.What Sheldon said in Howard and Bernadette’s wedding ceremony left me a deep impression.Sheldon said that he hoped they two could find fun from each other as much as he found from himself，and people laughed.Why？ There is a kind of conversation ambiguity，because “find fun from oneself” can also be regarded as masturbation.With the help of conversation ambiguity，American TV series has developed its way to achieve comic effect which makes the audience laugh knowingly.
In my point of view，overcoming and reducing the negative impacts of conversation ambiguity asks for people’s deeper analysis and understanding toward it.Some of the factors are rooted in the history and culture，so it needs us to learn more especially under the trend of internationalization.At the same time，the positive side of conversation ambiguity does make our life more enjoyable and help us deal with some embarrassing situations.We should realize the positive impacts it brings to us and make use of it，as well as discover more potentials of it.