Ambiguous Sentences Research Articles

Sentence Semantic Similarity based Complex Network approach for Word Sense Disambiguation

Word Sense Disambiguation is a branch of Natural Language Processing(NLP) that deals with multi-sense words. The multi-sense words are referred to as the polysemous words. The term lexical ambiguity is introduced by the multi-sense words. The existing sense disambiguation module works effectively for single sentences with available context information. The word embedding plays a vital role in the process of disambiguation. The context-dependent word embedding model is used for disambiguation. The main goal of this research paper is to disambiguate the polysemous words by considering available context information. The main identified challenge of disambiguation is the ambiguous word without context information. The discussed complex network approach is disambiguating ambiguous sentences by considering the semantic similarities. The sentence semantic similarity-based network is constructed for disambiguating ambiguous sentences. The proposed methodology is trained with SemCor, Adaptive-Lex, and OMSTI standard lexical resources. The findings state that the discussed methodology is working fine for disambiguating large documents where the sense of ambiguous sentences is on the adjacent sentences.

Oral Communication Skills Among English-Majored Graduates: A Survey of Those at Companies in Binh Duong Province, Vietnam

Background: This study examines the oral communication skills of English-majored graduates and addresses the challenges they encounter in effectively communicating in English. Methods: A questionnaire was administered to 150 graduates from a university in Binh Duong province, yielding valuable insights into their language proficiency and practical experience since graduation. The majority of participants had less than four years of real-world experience, with varied levels of English oral communication development. Results: Linguistic problems identified included pronunciation errors, ambiguous sentences, and inappropriate sentence structures. Non-linguistic challenges included a lack of interest, shyness, difficulty finding ideas during conversations, nervousness, feeling uncomfortable, and concern about maintaining face. Interviews with ten graduates further confirmed these issues, highlighting limited specialized vocabulary, pronunciation difficulties, and self-confidence as common challenges. Strategies proposed for addressing these challenges include dedicating more time, using subtitles while watching movies or listening to music, and engaging with foreigners for practice. Conclusion: This research contributes to the understanding of oral communication challenges faced by English-majored graduates and provides recommendations for improving their skills.

On Disambiguating baa sentences in Heyuan Hakka

As a rarely researched Chinese dialect, some interesting phenomena in Heyuan Hakka have not been well investigated. Although previous studies have researched some idiosyncractic markers or constructions in Heyuan Hakka, e.g., the grammaticalised baa, current interpretations of the linguistic phenomena in this Chinese diaclect are superficial. To introduce more up-to-date syntactic theories to the research of Heyuan Hakka, the multifunctional word baa is an ideal window into the combination of theories and concrete examples. Based on previous studies, this paper aims to give a further explanation of how native speakers decipher ambiguous baa sentences, i.e., to identify whether baa is a disposal marker or a passive marker, based on the more recent data collected from 8 native speakers. To achieve this foremost goal, this study investigates the effect of the animacy hieararchy and plausibility on producing baa sentences. For future research, this paper would inspire researchers to study Heyuan Hakka in virture of different theories and even to study other under-researched dialects in China.

The role of underspecification in relative clause attachment: Speed-accuracy tradeoff evidence.

A number of studies have found evidence for the so-called ambiguity advantage, that is, faster processing of ambiguous sentences compared with unambiguous counterparts. While a number of proposals regarding the mechanism underlying this phenomenon have been made, the empirical evidence so far is far from unequivocal. It is compatible with several theories, including strategic underspecification (Swets et al., 2008), race models (Logačev & Vasishth, 2016; Van Gompel et al., 2000), and a more recent coactivation-based account (Dillon et al., 2019). While all three classes of theories make matching predictions for the average time to complete relative clause (RC) attachment in ambiguous compared with unambiguous sentences, their predictions diverge with regard to the minimum completion times. The speed-accuracy tradeoff procedure was used to test the predictions of all three classes of theories. According to a hierarchical Bayesian model, the speed-accuracy tradeoff functions (SATFs) for ambiguous RC attachment conditions show an earlier departure from chance performance than in either high or low attachment conditions. The results further indicate increased asymptotic accuracy in the ambiguous condition but no increase in processing rate. Taken together, this pattern of results is compatible with the strategic underspecification model and coactivation-based accounts, but not with race models. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

On the Impact of Mode of Presentation and Age on Parsing Structurally Ambiguous Relative Clauses

The relative clause Attachment preferences of female Persian learners of English were investigated regarding their age and modes of presentation (online/offline and holistic/segmented). 50 female native speakers of Persian ranging in age from 15 to 25 participated in the study. The instruments used in the present research included two tests of ambiguous sentences: 1) a grammaticality judgment test, and 2) the main test which was presented in three separate forms: a) Offline, b) online complete presentation (timed) and c) online segment by segment sentence (Self-Paced). This study used the method employed by Kim and Christianson (2013) for determining the attachment preferences of the participants. The results revealed that the participants' age affected the attachment preferences significantly in that adolescents had a clear determiner phrase 1 preference. There was also a statistically significant difference among the three modes of presenting the materials. The findings revealed that learners transferred their attachment strategies from their mother tongue to English, which provided support for transfer hypothesis. The research findings on whether L2 learners can achieve native like patterns of ambiguity resolution is still less than conclusive and findings seem to suggest that L2 learners apply parsing strategies which are less automatized than native speakers and even at odds with some studies reporting no transfer of L1 parsing strategies. Language teachers should make their learners cognizant of relative clause attachment preferences in English to avert their transfer of their mother tongue strategies in determining the antecedents of the relative clauses.

Pauses and Parsing: Testing the Role of Prosodic Chunking in Sentence Processing

It is broadly accepted that the prosody of a sentence can influence sentence processing by providing the listener information about the syntax of the sentence. It is less clear what the mechanism is that underlies the transmission of this information. In this paper, we test whether the influence of the prosodic structure on parsing is a result of perceptual breaks such as pauses or whether it is the result of more abstract prosodic elements, such as intonational phrases. In three experiments, we test whether different types of perceptual breaks, e.g., intonational boundaries (Experiment 1), an artificial buzzing sound (Experiment 2), and an isolated pause (Experiment 3), influence syntactic attachment in ambiguous sentences. We find that although full intonational boundaries influence syntactic disambiguation, the artificial buzz and isolated pause do not. These data rule out theories that argue that perceptual breaks indirectly influence grammatical attachment through memory mechanisms, and instead, show that listeners use prosodic breaks themselves as cues to parsing.

I saw a movie with Brad Pitt – Using pencils to learn syntax

This paper presents a research project conducted on four second-year English classes (approximately 110 students) at Sorbonne Nouvelle University (Paris, France) in 2021/2022. This project was motivated by the realization that students were struggling to understand the opposition between linearity and syntax and to grasp the basic syntax of noun phrases in English. This difficulty can be explained by two reasons: the students were not engaged in the learning process because they did not clearly understand what they had to learn about syntax; and what was expected of them – demonstrating their understanding of noun phrase structure by adding brackets – was beyond their reach.The authors assumed that a non-verbal modality such as drawing could serve as a first step in understanding the opposition between syntax and linearity. They hypothesized that offering more than one modality to demonstrate one’s understanding of noun phrase structure would address both difficulties: engaging the students and helping them achieve the learning outcomes. To that effect, they designed an activity that introduced the concept of syntactic ambiguity and that was both engaging and multimodal. Students were presented with syntactically ambiguous sentences such as "I saw a movie with Brad Pitt" and were asked to:• discuss the two possible interpretations in their own words, i.e., produce a gloss;• draw the two possible interpretations of the sentence; • add a follow-up sentence to clarify the context;• bracket the noun phrases to make the syntactic pattern visible.A satisfaction questionnaire was completed by 93 students at the end of the session and 111 midterm exam papers were collected for analysis.The results tend to prove that the original hypothesis was valid. Offering an array of mediums, including drawing, to describe the syntax of noun phrases made students feel confident and engaged. However, the lesson plan should also include activities that help students transition towards verbal expression as university students are expected to exhibit understanding in words.

Multifaceted Dimensions of Ambiguity in English

Language is an effective means of communication. Words, phrases, and sentences are the standard units of a language. Every word is associated with a particular meaning/sense. Sometimes the meaning of a word undergoes a change, depending on the context or the structure. This triggers ambiguity. When a word, a phrase or a sentence is said to have more than one meaning or multiple meaning, they are said to be ambiguous. Homophonous or polysemous words can give rise to ambiguity depending on the context. There are various types of ambiguity in English. They include lexical ambiguity, syntactic/structural ambiguity, pragmatic ambiguity, phonological ambiguity, scope ambiguity, anaphoric/ referential ambiguity, semantic ambiguity, etc. Lexical ambiguity arises due to polysemous words. Structural ambiguity occurs when a phrase, clause or a sentence possesses more than one meaning. Phonological ambiguity arises when homophonous words—words having identical sounds –are used. Anaphoric ambiguity is perceived when there is more than one potential antecedent in the text. Scope ambiguity is found when a structure has two or more than two quantifiers or floating quantifiers and conveys more than one meaning. When the functional value of a phrase or a sentence changes, we find pragmatic ambiguity. When a sentence or a structure has more than two meanings, it contains multiple ambiguity. Ambiguous words lend a spicy dimension to the use and application of the language. Ambiguous words or phrases or sentences present in a text enhance the value of the text. Ambiguous words, phrases, and sentences are interesting and entertaining. Ambiguity tests our sophisticated cognitive skills for disambiguating. This disambiguation imparts pleasure to us. Ambiguity can assess our competence in the language. It tests the skill of comprehension. We enjoy disambiguating words, phrases and sentences in English from the core of our heart, and our disambiguating these whets our competence in the language.

THE EFFECTS OF AGE, PRESENTATION MODE (ONLINE, OFFLINE), AND SEGMENTATION OF AMBIGUOUS SENTENCES ON ATTACHMENT PREFERENCES OF FEMALE EFL LEARNERS

One kind of structural ambiguity is in sentences including two determiner phrases (DP) that are followed by a relative clause (RC). One example of this type of ambiguity is "Somebody shot the servant of the actress who was on the balcony". Speakers of different languages attribute RC either to DP1 or DP2. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between participants' age and participants' attachment preferences, as well as different ways of presenting the material (i.e., offline vs. online) on the attachment preferences. This study also aims to see if the segmentation of experimental sentences plays any role in participant attachment preferences. To this end, a sample of 50 female native speakers of Persian ranging between 15 to 25 years participated in this study. The instruments used in the present research include an offline sentence acceptability judgment test and main tests that included the first main test, offline test, online complete presentation (timed), and an online segment-by-segment sentence. For the analysis of data t-tests and ANOVA were used. The statistics showed that participants' age affects attachment preferences, and adolescents have a tendency toward DP1 selection. Different modes of presenting ambiguous sentences also affected the results; presenting materials in a self-paced online method leads to a significant difference other two modes. Finally, segmentation plays a role in the attachment preference of RC and in resolving ambiguous sentences. The results showed that students had a preference for segmented presentation rather than a holistic mode of presentation.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0029/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Philosophical Interpretation of Lexical and Sentential Ambiguity in English-Arabic Translation

Translation debates have continued to be passionately argued. The study of the connection between philosophy and translation on the one hand and ambiguity in translation on the other hand have both been growing. The connection between philosophy and translation is unavoidable and inevitable. Notwithstanding, philosophers have not tackled the question of translation directly; translation in general has been tackled indirectly by some philosophers. Ambiguity in translation is a fertile field to investigate. Translation of some written sentences is problematic since they are translated from different contexts in culture. This paper aims to (1) study the connection between philosophy and translation on the one hand, and then (2) connect the philosophical interpretation of ambiguous sentences and their effect on the translation from English into Arabic. This paper also aims at (3) discussing the question that is hissing in the translator’s mind in order to translate an ambiguous sentence: whether to lean on syntactic or semantic dis-ambiguation. As a result, this paper hypothesizes that lexemes meaning, interpretation, and thus translation is not only sentence bound but clear cotext and context bound. Therefore, to test this hypothesis, in my research, the study selects some sentences from some research and dictionaries which are believed to be ambiguous. The examples I have selected may not cover all ambiguous English sentences, for ambiguous sentences are still turning up, however, I have tried to cover frequently used sentences. I will look at some common difficulties in the interpretation of lexical items. Then, the ambiguity of these sentences will be removed by using these sentences with the same ambiguous lexemes in clear cotext and context. After removing the ambiguity, the sentences will be translated into Arabic to show the impact of both cotext and context on translation.

A Tale of Two Theories

A Tale of Two Theories

Research and analysis on the teaching of ambiguous sentences in Chinese as a second language learner

Ambiguous sentences as a difficult point in the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language have always affected the two-language acquisition of two-language learners, this paper analyzes based on the bias in the process of two-language acquisition, uses observation method and causal analysis method to analyze the causes of ambiguous sentences as research points, and finds that the classification of traditional ambiguous sentences is mostly carried out at three levels, but the ambiguity of two-language learners in addition to three planes also includes the difference between pronunciation and vocabulary and puts forward the following suggestions from the perspective of Chinese international education: pay attention to the choice of words 3. Pay attention to word order teaching, appropriate use of punctuation, appropriate change of sentence pattern. I hope to contribute to the development of ambiguous sentence teaching in Chinese international education.

Are prosodic effects on sentence comprehension dependent on age?

to investigate prosodic boundary effects on the comprehension of attachment ambiguities in Brazilian Portuguese and to test two hypotheses relying on the notion of boundary strength: the absolute boundary hypothesis (ABH) and the relative boundary hypothesis (RBH). Manipulations of prosodic structure influence how listeners interpret syntactically ambiguous sentences. However, the role of prosody in spoken language comprehension of sentences has received limited attention in languages other than English, particularly from a developmental perspective. Twenty-three adults and 15 children participated in a computerized sentence comprehension task involving syntactically ambiguous sentences. Each sentence was recorded in eight different prosodic forms with acoustic manipulations of F0, duration and pause varying the boundary size to reflect predictions of the ABH and RBH. Children and adults differed in how prosody influenced their syntactic processing and children were significantly slower than adults. Results indicated that interpretation of sentences varied according to their prosodic forms. Neither the ABH or the RBH explained how children and adults who speak Brazilian Portuguese use prosodic boundaries to disambiguate sentences. There is evidence that the way prosodic boundaries influence disambiguation varies cross-linguistically.

Intensifiers and epistemic adverbials – On the history of German echt ‘really, lit. real/genuine’

Adverbials of truth or reality such as really (en.), wirklich (de.), verdaderamente (sp.) are cross-linguistically assumed to be a rich source for intensifiers (degree words) as in: (i) Peter is really nice. The epistemic adverbial is reanalysed as a modifier of a predicative adjective in a syntactically ambiguous sentence as in (i). At the same time the emphasis on the truth of the proposition invites the inference that the property in question is amply present. This view on the emergence of intensifiers from adverbials of truth is challenged by the German intensifier echt ‘really, lit. genuine/real’ as in: (ii) Peter ist echt nett ‘Peter is really nice’. In contemporary German echt is very popular as an intensifier, a proposition modifier, a speech-act modifier and a response particle. However, a diachronic analysis of the use of echt as an adverbial in New High German reveals that the intensifier reading develops much earlier than the reading as a proposition modifier, i.e. an epistemic adverbial. The article offers a discussion of the development of echt which sheds a somewhat different light on the relation between intensifiers and epistemic adverbials, and it suggests a unified analysis of the uses of echt in contemporary German which supports Traugott’s view of grammaticalisation as also encompassing an extension of structural scope.

Characterizing the Prevalence of Obesity Misinformation, Factual Content, Stigma, and Positivity on the Social Media Platform Reddit Between 2011 and 2019: Infodemiology Study.

Reddit is a popular social media platform that has faced scrutiny for inflammatory language against those with obesity, yet there has been no comprehensive analysis of its obesity-related content. We aimed to quantify the presence of 4 types of obesity-related content on Reddit (misinformation, facts, stigma, and positivity) and identify psycholinguistic features that may be enriched within each one. All sentences (N=764,179) containing "obese" or "obesity" from top-level comments (n=689,447) made on non-age-restricted subreddits (ie, smaller communities within Reddit) between 2011 and 2019 that contained one of a series of keywords were evaluated. Four types of common natural language processing features were extracted: bigram term frequency-inverse document frequency, word embeddings derived from Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers, sentiment from the Valence Aware Dictionary for Sentiment Reasoning, and psycholinguistic features from the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count Program. These features were used to train an Extreme Gradient Boosting machine learning classifier to label each sentence as 1 of the 4 content categories or other. Two-part hurdle models for semicontinuous data (which use logistic regression to assess the odds of a 0 result and linear regression for continuous data) were used to evaluate whether select psycholinguistic features presented differently in misinformation (compared with facts) or stigma (compared with positivity). After removing ambiguous sentences, 0.47% (3610/764,179) of the sentences were labeled as misinformation, 1.88% (14,366/764,179) were labeled as stigma, 1.94% (14,799/764,179) were labeled as positivity, and 8.93% (68,276/764,179) were labeled as facts. Each category had markers that distinguished it from other categories within the data as well as an external corpus. For example, misinformation had a higher average percent of negations (β=3.71, 95% CI 3.53-3.90; P<.001) but a lower average number of words >6 letters (β=-1.47, 95% CI -1.85 to -1.10; P<.001) relative to facts. Stigma had a higher proportion of swear words (β=1.83, 95% CI 1.62-2.04; P<.001) but a lower proportion of first-person singular pronouns (β=-5.30, 95% CI -5.44 to -5.16; P<.001) relative to positivity. There are distinct psycholinguistic properties between types of obesity-related content on Reddit that can be leveraged to rapidly identify deleterious content with minimal human intervention and provide insights into how the Reddit population perceives patients with obesity. Future work should assess whether these properties are shared across languages and other social media platforms.

Analisis kesalahan sintaksis bahasa Indonesia dalam karangan narasi siswa kelas V sekolah dasar

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Abstract&lt;/strong&gt;. This study aims to describe syntactic errors in the fields of phrases, clauses, and sentences. Describe the factors that cause syntactic errors in narrative essays for fifth grade students of SD Negeri Tegalayu Surakarta. This study uses a qualitative method. Methods of data collection is done by means of interviews, observation and documentation. The validity of the data using triangulation techniques and sources. Analysis of the data using the interactive model of Miles and Huberman. The results of the research based on indicators in the phrase field contained errors, namely the use of regional languages, inappropriate prepositions, wrong wording, excessive elements, excessive superlative influences and the use of respiricals. The error of the clause is adding a preposition between the verb and the object. Sentence errors are unsubjected sentences, illogical sentences, ambiguous sentences, omission of conjunctions and the use of foreign terms. Internal and exte kurnal causes are lack of understanding of correct sentence structure, low reading interest, use of language in the surrounding environment. The implication of this research is that teachers must improve strategies to overcome syntax errors by explaining good and correct writing procedures according to syntax.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Keywords:&lt;/strong&gt; language error analysis, syntax, narrative essay&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;

Inhibitory Control and Patterns of Errors in Resolution of Syntactically Ambiguous Sentences.

Sentences that have more than one possible meaning are said to be syntactically ambiguous (SA). Because the correct interpretation of these sentences can be unclear, resolving SA sentences can be cognitively demanding for children, particularly with regards to inhibitory control (IC). In this study we provide three lines of evidence supporting the importance of IC in SA resolution. First, we show that children with higher IC resolve more SA sentences correctly. Second, we show that SA resolution is worse on tasks that place higher demands on IC, even for children with high IC. Third, we show that children with higher IC make different types of SA errors than children with lower IC. This study expands understanding of the cognitive skills underlying language and suggests a need to consider task demands on IC when developing educational curriculums.

Analisis Kesalahan Ejaan pada Penelitian Karya Ilmiah Mahasiswa

The purpose of the study was to describe the use of punctuation in scientific works of students of the Language Education Study Program and Indonesian Literature, Muhammadiyah University, Tangerang. The research carried out is qualitative descriptive research. The object of research is a student's scientific work Indonesian Language and Literature Study Program semester VI with data and sources data in the form of research paper assignments. Data collection using studies documentary. The data analysis technique used is descriptive qualitative. Results research shows errors contained in student paper research in the form of using the wrong punctuation to cause ambiguous sentences.

The Use of Effective Sentences on Procedure Text for Class VII Students of Terpadu Islamic Junior High School, Batujaya

This study aims to analyze the use of effective sentences in procedural texts for seventh grade students of SMP Islam Terpadu Batujaya. This study uses a qualitative approach with a descriptive method which aims to describe objectively the use of effective sentences in students' procedural texts. The research technique used is documentation. The results showed that the students in using effective sentences were quite good. After the writer analyzed the procedural text of students in using effective sentences, the writer concluded that in the procedural text of the seventh-grade students of SMP Islam Terpadu Batujaya it was said to be quite good in the use of effective sentences. However, there are still some students who still do not understand effective sentences and there are still many students who use ambiguous sentences. The author found the use of effective sentences as many as 60 sentences. The characteristics of the effective sentence are 28 sentences (46.67%) of unity, 21 sentences (35%), 2 sentences (3.33%), 8 sentences of variation (13.33%), and parallelism. 1 sentence (1.67%).

A descriptive study on the acoustic and kinematic characteristics of internal open junctures: Implications for highly intelligible individuals with Parkinson’s disease

This study extends previous work on the acoustic characteristics of ambiguous sentences for male speakers with Parkinson’s disease (PD) [Kuo, JASA 148(4), 2583 (2020)] with additional data. Specifically, the purpose of this study is to further understand acoustic and articulatory characteristics of internal open junctures for speakers with PD. Internal open junctures consist of set strings of phonemes that are phonetically and/or semantically ambiguous when there exist two or more ways to segment the phoneme strings [Lehiste, Phonetica 5(Suppl. 1), 5–54 (1960); Fisher &amp; Logemann, Q. J. Speech 53(4), 365–373 (1967)]. As a part of a larger study, speech acoustic output and tongue kinematic data from four male speakers of American English with PD and two neurologically healthy males were captured simultaneously using 3D electromagnetic articulography. Vocalic segments of internal open junctures were identified acoustically from ambiguous sentence productions, in which the internal open junctures were obtained in pairs, with each phoneme string contributing to two different word combinations. The second formant (F2) and tongue kinematic trajectories are compared for these pairs. It is hypothesized that for the same phoneme string, varied linguistic boundaries elicit differences in tongue trajectory patterns and F2 changes in duration and speed.