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[原创]The Discriminating of Ambiguity in Listening Comprehension
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The Discriminating of Ambiguity in Listening Comprehension
Catalog:
1. Ambiguity
1.1 Ambiguity and Language
1.2 What Does Language Ambiguity Mean?
2 Types of ambiguity
2.1 Structural ambiguity
2.1.1 Phonetic ambiguity
2.1.2 Semantic Ambiguity
2.1.3 Syntactic Ambiguity
2.2 Pragmatic Ambiguity
2.3 Understanding ambiguity
3. The basic methods of distinguishing ambiguity
3.1 Get rid of thinking model
3.2 Griping the additional things of sounds
3.3 Identify the context
3.4 Know well about the background of social culture
4. Conclusion
5. References
摘要：语言能力包括听、说、读、写四个方面。听和阅读是语言输入的主要途径。他们都属于积极的接收技能，是人们从外界接收语言信息的重要手段。听更是信息接收的重要途径。在语言学习过程中，听力理解能力尤为重要。而人类自然语言的局限性和人类思维活动对外部世界感应的随即性，必然导致有声语言在一定状态下的不确定性。即歧义。歧义是语言本身及语言交际中普遍存在的现象。歧义所表现出的不确定性，常常成为干涉外语学习者听力理解的羁绊。了解歧义的特征和一般规律，学会分辨歧义的基本方法，有助于学习者听力理解中的语言推断，提高学习者听力理解的能力。
Abstract: The abilities of language include listening ,speaking , reading and writing .Listening and reading is the way of language input . They are all active receptive skills, and are the most important ways dependent on which people can get information from the outside world . Listening is a more important one. But , because of the limitation of language and the optional nature of the response which shows people`s thought of the outside world , sound language inevitably becomes to be uncertainty under some definite circumstances . That is ambiguity. Ambiguity is a common phenomenon of the language and language communication. The indefinite characteristics of ambiguity is a common trammel that interferes with the learner`s listening comprehension. To have a better understanding of the characteristics, general rules of ambiguity and to master the basic ways of discriminating ambiguity is helpful to the learners`semantic inference.
Key words:Lintening Comprehension, Ambiguity, Semantic inference
1. Ambiguity
1.1 Ambiguity and Language
The ways of language input are listening and reading. They are all receptive skills , and are the most important ways dependent on which people can get information from the outside world. Listening is a more important one .The nature of listening comprehension is listener use language knowledge and background knowledge actively to absorb and analyse the information , to understand exactly speaker`s meaning, to get a through understanding of the whole conversation.
The teaching of listening comprehension aims at enlightenning learners how to understand the pure information contained by the sound symbols.Obviously, because of the limitation of language and the optional nature of the response which shows people`s thought of the outside world, sound language inevitably becomes to be uncertainty under some definite circumstances. Thus, the ambiguity of sound language often make learners who use English as the second language do not know how to understand the pure information contained by the sound symbols. So, the ambiguity is a important interference that should not be ignored in the teaching of listening comprehension. The realization of the characteristic of the ambiguity and the basic method of identification of ambiguity will improve the ability of student`s listening comprehension.
Despite the fact that ambiguity in language is an essential part of language, it is often an obstacle to be ignored or a problem to be solved for people to understand each other. In any case, language ambiguity can be understood as an illustration of the complexity of language itself.
1.2 What Does Language Ambiguity Mean?
As a start, I will define some terms to clarify what we mean by “ambiguity.“ By defining “lexical and structural ambiguity,“ “connotation, denotation and implication Ambiguity “,“Semantic Ambiguity“, “Syntactic Ambituity“, “Pragmatic Ambiguity“,“Understanding ambiguity“, and so on , I will try to construct a base upon which language ambiguity in listening comprehension takes on extra meaning.
Something is ambiguous when it can be understood in two or more possible senses or ways. If the ambiguity is in a single word it is called lexical ambiguity. In a sentence or clause, structural ambiguity.
2 Types of ambiguity
2.1 Structural ambiguity
2.1.1 Phonetic ambiguity
In English , homonyms and homophones disturb the meanings of pronunciations , so did the pronunciation ambiguity . A typical example is Homophone . Where the pronunciation is the same or close but standard spelling differs. Such as I/ai or eye/ai ; see/si or sea/si ;week/wi:k or weak/wi:k and so on . All of these are homophone since they had the same pronunciation.
And homonym. When different words are pronounced, and possibly spelled, the same way. For example:sence and sense; the spelling of them are similar, but the meanings are different. Other homonyms cames from foreign language . For example :“ball“. It means a round thing that you use in games and sports or a big formal party where people dance . The former cames from English , the later cames from French .Also ,“match“ .It means a game between two people or teams or a special short thin piece of wood that makes fire when you rub it on something rough .The former cames from English. the later cames from French. Because they have the same spelling as well as the pronunciation .So we call them Homograph.
Thus. the meaning of a word will be uncertain without a given circumstance or context . It also means a same pronunciation will have a different meaning under certain different circumstance. So we should deal well with the Homograph, otherwise , we will make some silly mistakes.
Moreover,in the consecutive pronunciation of Daily conversation , it will be more difficult to differentiate 1Phonetic ambiguity . Such as words like “say“ or “see“ ; “heed“ or “hid“ in the fluent conversation.
Especially in talking with foreingners, listeners usually cannot understand their pronunciation nor their meanings . So , listeners usually can not understand them , but ,if the words are repeated by a Chinese speaker , the listener maybe understand exactly . But , the teaching of listening comprehension aims at making learners qualified to talk with foreigners not Chinese . So , we should emphasize the ambiguity in listening comprehension . And , in the fluent conversation, learners usually combine several words into one word .
For example :
combine “a part “ into “apart “.
combine “a special way “ into “esprcial way“ .
On the other hand , learners usually separate a word into several words.
For example :
separate “underground “ into “under the ground “
separate “especially “ into “ a specially “ .And so on.
In fact , isolated pronunciation can not form language.In daily conversation , listeners can understand the meaning of speaker , even though the pronunciation of certain words are ambiguous. Because , with the help of experience, people can infer these words`s meaning. But as Homophone or Homonyms , which will make thinking in listening comprehension suspended without a certain circumstance. So we should improve learners` feeling of language as well as their ability of discrimination.
2.1.2 Semantic Ambiguity
Eric Partridge , an expert of linguistics said “Words do not have meaning, People have meanings for them “. It means the uncertainty and diversity of the meanings of the words. Word ambiguity means that the diversity of word`s conceptual meaning . Conceptual meaning is a vital factor of communication and the foundation of the information exchange. Under different circumstances , words will have different meanings or even to be opposite.
In fact, almost any word has more than one meaning. “Note“ = “A musical tone“ or “A short written record.“ “Lie“ = “Statement that you know it is not true“ or “present tense of lay: to be or put yourself in a flat position.“ Also we can take the word “ambiguity“ itself. It can mean an indecision as to what you mean, an intention to mean several things, a probability that one or other or both of two things has been meant, and the fact that a statement has several meanings. Ambiguity tends to increase with frequency of usage.
For example:
“Mr . Greiner gave me a ring yesterday.“
The “ring“ here can mean telephone somebody or a circle of metal that you wear on your finger.
“It is a wet summer “.
The “wet“ here means rainy.
“He is wet through.“
The “wet“ here means completely covered in liquid.
“He is all wet .“
The “wet“ here means mistaken.
Sometimes , learners can listen the words correctly , but they do not know the exact meaning of the words, because they did not master enough meanings of the words . For example , the word “free“ has two meanings , one is “ If you are free , you can go where you want and do what you want“; another is “If something is free ,you do not have to pay for it “. When a listener hears “The wind mill costs money of course , but the wind itself is free “. he will be puzzled weither the meaning of “free“ is the former or the latter . If its meaning is the former , the sentence can be understood as “Although it needs money to construct the wind mill , the wind can go anywhere if it wants .“ For the latter meaning , the sentence can be understood as “ Although it need money to construct the wind mill , we do not have to pay for the wind itself . “ Obviously , the former is not suitable , and the meaning of the sentence is not very appropriate . The latter is correct meaning of “free“ in this sentence.
Of cours , there are many other meanings of the word “free“. For example ,“Dr . Koope has called for a smokefree America by the year 2000 “. Neither the former meaning nor the later doesn`t appropriate in this sentence , So , the listener will be puzzled . but if he know another meaning of “free“ , the problem will be solved here , The word “free“ in this sentence means “no“ or “haven`t “ , so , the correct meaning of the sentence is “Dr , Koope appeals for a no smoking country by the year 2000 “.
Words ambiguity sometimes cames into being since the limitation of the explainations of the words in dictionary . For example , in sentences “ Incontinence is a medical condition “ and “These drugs are used to treat nine serious medical conditions “ , the meanings of the word “condition“ in dictionary is “how a person, animal or thing is “, But this meaning do not very satisfaied here .If the listener knows “condition“ here means “illness“ , the meaning of the sentences “This is an interesting condition, I have never seen this illness before “ is very clearly. But, the “condition“ still has another meaning , For example , in sentence “Experts also say dyslexia is not a disease , they say it is just a condition caused by differences in development of brain tissue before a baby is born “ . The distinguishing between “disease“ and “condition“ here is very subtle.
With the rapid development of English, many new words have emerged . Such as the words “cyberspace“, “sybermarket“, “e-mail“ , which emerge with the emergence of the high-tech. We should know the meanings of them exactly.
Robert . A . Hall said “People will give a word some different meanings under different context. In listening comprehension, learners should analyse it very carefully in order to know the exact meaning of it.
2.1.3 Syntactic Ambiguity
Syntactic ambiguity is a property of sentences which may be parsed in more that one way . It may or may not involve one word having two parts of speech or homonyms.
For example
“His object is not to eat .“
This sentence can mean that he is fasting or he is not going to have something to eat.
In order to know the pure informations of the speaker`s speech. we should deal well with the language circumstance ,pronunciation circumstance , psychic circumstance.
In addition. The words such as a, an ,the ,of ,in ,at , or will be obscure in the fluent speech . When speakers speak these words , their voice will be mute and the speech will be so fast that these words will be omited . For listeners , it is difficult to hear them clearly, and it certainly is a difficulty in the process of studying.
For example in the fluent speech ,the artical “the “ will be omited . It will be ambiguous by carelessness . Such as :
A : He went to prison yesterday.
B: He went to the prison yesterday.
In sentence A , the person was a prisoner. In sentence B , the person just visited the prison.
2.2 Pragmatic Ambiguity
In normal speech, ambiguity can sometimes be understood as something witty or deceitful. Some experts propose that ambiguity should be extended to any verbal nuance, which gives room to alternative reactions to the same linguistic element. So. pragmatic ambiguity means speakers use ambiguity positively in order to express certain meaning or intention. Such as :
Example A:
“call me a taxi “ said the fat rich man.
“Okay“, said the door man “you are a taxi , but you look more like a truck to me “
In this sentence ,the door man uses the ambiguity of “Call me a taxi“ deliberately to deride the fat rich man.
Example B:
“Perhaps from some vaque rumor of his college honours, which had been whispered abroad on his first arrival , perhaps because he was an unmarried ,unencumbered gentleman, he had been called the bacherlor.“
Example C:
There is a sentence in a sports news . “AC Milan lost 2-1 in Munich , but because the Italian side has won the fisrst leg 1:0 , the two sides tied and Milan advanced on the strength of its away goal .“
AC Milan won the first match , Munich won the second one . And the total goals of both team is 2, why did AC Milan won the match finally? Because of the word “away“ here . “Away“ here means AC Milan was guest in the mathc in which it won 1:0. In rules of football match. away goal will be doubled . So the total goals was 3 for AC Milan , 2 for Munich , and AC Milan won the match finally.
Pragmatic Ambiguity is the response of certain mental language cirtumstance.
2.3 Understanding ambiguity
The understanding may includes:
(1) Identifying and cognitive meaning .
Identifying names and numbers. If you have not identified the name correctly，we would surely not say that this is ‘a failure of understanding’，but rather that you ‘had not heard properly’.
(2) Procedural understanding
It often happens that some one explains to you have to do in order to achieve something，like finding your way to the library，filling in a registration form，setting up your computer，or making short-crust pastry.It is barely necessary to understand the language in a linguistic mode here，in the sense of being able to repet it back，or to construct a summary of what was said.Gillian Brown assumes that the most basic mode of language understanding，that which is least removed from simple identification，is procedural understanding.
(3) Narrative understanding
Narrative understanding is involved in any genre where the content is temporally organized-technical or legal reports，historical documents，accounts of rugby matches，anecdotes，planning future events，as well as in literature，in short stories and novels.It involves the ability to understand language as depicting a temporal sequence of events in a given spatial domain，or set of domains. This requires interpreting a verbally described set of circumstances which may have no immediate representation in the real world，so that the listener is required to imagine a sequence of events，to establish in a mental discourse representation a number of distinct individuals and keep track of them through time，determining how they act or are acted upon，and envisaging the attendant circumstances.
(4) Understanding argument
Understanding an argument requires that you create a mental representation of a number of premises，that you distinguish between these and remember them accurately，and then that you track the abstract relationships established between them，until you reach the conclusion which the speaker wishes you to reach.
There are several reasons for understanding ambiguity.
For foreigners, they know certain cultural background , knowledge of history , social customs ,thus they will do not explain those to listeners . So , if listeners do not know those things that contained in speaker`s speech, the understanding ambiguity is unavoidable.
For example :
“After the emergency of shoting in White House. it is treasury secretary who deal the emergency“ . Listeners may be puzzled , why it is treasury secretary not secure secretary ? . In fact, for some history reasons , treasury secretary is in charge of the secret services to protect President in U.S.A.
Another example : There is a sentence introduced the telephone-web in America that is “ It provides 800 telephone service“ . It can be understood as there are 800 telephone services in all. But the correct meaning of this sentence is “ It provides free telephone service“. because in U.S.A , 800 means free telephone service.
Listeners will be puzzled when they hear some news such as “ The Greek Cypriot government has denied responsibility for the killing fo a Turkish Cypriot soldier and the wounding of an other . A Greek Cypriot spokesman says the National Guard found on evidence of shots being fired on the Turkish Cyprot base . The spokesman said the incident was caused by Turkish Cypriot & middot ; The Turkish side says Greek Cypriot caused the attack early Sunday to answer last mouth`s killing of two Greek Cypriot civilians .British official investigating the latest incident says it is not clear who was responsible .
If listener do not know the history of Cyriot that it splited into Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot in 1974. he may do not know the exactly meaning of this news although he know the meaning of each word in the sentences.
The same example is “ United Nations insectors have now arrived in Iraq to investigate claims that chemical weapons have been used against the shi`ites in the southern marshes . The inspectors have already interviewed Iraqi refugees in neighbouting Iran . They now hope to examine soil and vegetation in the marsh lands and to take and blood skin samples from alleged victims of the chemical attacks.“ It will be difficult to understand these sentences without the background of the history both of United Nations and Iraq.
Moreover, there are many special words in news , such as “they sleep in Bradley“, the word “bradley“ is the name of one kind of tank. “the Gulf War“, “ West Bank“, “Camp Dvid Accord“, “ Dayton Peace Accor“, “Water gate“, and so on . These special words can be difficulty for listeners.
For example :
Albania : United States`s Defence Secretary William Perry says American troops may remain in the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia after NATO peace forces leave Bosni .Bosnia-Herze-govina, in December .Mr , Perry spoke in Tirana after meeting with officials from Bulgaria , Italy, Macedonia , Turkey and Albania.
There are 45 words in this news, the words like Albania , William , Perry ,Tirana ,Bukgaria , NATO , Bulgaria and so on , are 13, If listener did not know these words` meanings he can not under stand the sentences .
So, ther are many special words in the speech that said bay talker. sometimes , they are very important in the whole sentences without which the meaning of the sentences will be misunderstanded by listeners. That is Understanding Ambiguity.
3. The basic methods of distinguishing ambiguity
In fact , Any language is based on certain indiomationess . In <People and Language > , A .F .Wallork said: “Language is a composite . The comprehension formed in the people`s comunication is largely depend on the cognitive abilit of the interaction between many factors in the usage of language.“ It points out the complexity and the unavoidable situation of Amgiguity , and idiomationess is the key of knowing the pure information of Ambiguity . The logic of people`s thought governs idiomationess that is the inter community in people`s language . The basic rules of listening comprehension is the unification of the sound and the meaning. Only in this way , can sound contains the pure information. The learners should know the idiomationess in English .the methods of logic, language circumstance , the background of culture and the knoweledge of tone and so on , for ambiguity often disturb the unification.
3.1 Get rid of thinking model.
As we all know that , different subjective world can resulted frome the same objective world . In other words , people`s observation and thinking models are governed by the structure of language.
For example:
The sentence “Sitting in his pants“ in Chinese means someone is wearing in his/her pants . But in English it means bareness .
“.......eat one`s words“ in Chinese means break one`s prom . but it means acknowledge one`s mistake in English.
One`s mother tongue is gradually formed in certain circumstance , thus , he/she has been governed by fixed thinking methods of mother tongue. So , in listening comprehension , it will be difficult to get rid of those fixed methods. Therefore , learner should practise his/her thinking model in English positivly.
3.2 Griping the additional things of sounds.
In comunication , One can express his intention by pause ,changing his tone , mood and other expressing methods or by laughing ,screaming, groaning, sighing and so on. All of these are the additional thing of language , and they are very important in distinguishing ambiguity in listening comprehension.
3.3 Identify the context
The meaning of sentence will change as the changing of the context. Context means the circumstance of communication.
For example
“It is a square meal.“
The “square“ here means generous ,not a shape with for straight sides that are the same laength and four right angle, because there is a word “meal“ in the sentence. This is the context . In sentence “ The train was long .“ It is difficult to determine if the train means carriages or wagons that are pulled by an engine along a railway line or just a skirt without certain context.
The organization of language depends much on context , and its variation usually cling to given context . The speaker use correct speech in given context to make the arrangement of his speech correspond to certain context and social background . The ordering of information depends on the grammar and logic bases on national cultural background , and influenced by the given context . Context gives word or sentence different meanings.
So , in listening comprehension , we should distinguish context positively in order to reduce the misunderstand of the ambiguity`s pur informations.
3.4 Know well about the background of social culture
Culture is the summation of material civilization as well as mental civilization which is created in the long history by human being. Language should not break from given civilization , which is the summation that is created in the long history of human being and dicides our observance and faith. Each language is enriched by the nutrition which comes from certain culture and civilization. Each language has its own characteristic.
In modern society , opportunities often arise for people to interact with others from abroad . First-time visitors to foreign countries may find themselves a bit surprised at the different lifestyles and cultural peculiarities they encounter.
For example :
The American form of address starts with the name of the individual first ,then the street name, the the city and state and finally the nation. It shows that America is built upon the premise of the value of the individual over and above the state and nation.
But the Chinese way of address stares with the name of nation first , the the city and the street ,then the name of the individual. It shows that China is built upon the premise of the value of the nation, the state , and the group over the individual.
Moreover , what is seen as common saying in one culture may be constructed as strange and even insulting in another culture. So , it would form ambiguity without the background of culture.
For example:
The need to show respect is universal .But how you show it is cultural. In American , to show respect in a church on removes his hat , In China , to show respect in a mosque , one puts on his hat and removes his shoes . The result is the same , but the habit is different .
Americans believe that high self-esteem and positive self-regard are signs of a healthy individual. This positive self-regard often includes speaking about oneself, one`s possessions and one`s talents in a self-flattering manner . On the other hand, the act of bragging or boasting about oneself , one`s possessions or one`s talents is viewed as extremely bad form by Chinese . The one who boasts is regarded ad a fool who does not know his or her limitaions .
In the United States , one informal or casual kind of social gathering is a potluck . At a potluck , each guest brings some food. To prevent guest bringing the same dishes , the host or hostess sometimes suggests what kinds of food each guest should bring. They do not want a party with 20 different pies or cakes and nothing else ! But in China dictionaries , it is hard to find this word , “potluck.“ Usually ,the host or hostess needs to prepare everything , If you suggest your guest should bring something to your party , a misunderstanding may occur .
So , it is very important to develop cross-cultural awareness in order to function in listening comprehension .
For example
In Chinese , we said “as strong as a ox “,but in English we used to say “as strong as a hors “. To express culture ,language is an important method .Specific culture and civilization can give certain characteristic to language.
The contents of civilizations are diversified ,for each of them has a versatile knowledge storehouse .People are living in definite national culture , For Chinese learner ,the understanding of distinct cultural value of English depends on the practice , which they did positively such as idiom , slang , and common saying are all contain certain deep cultural value .We should not infer their meanings just by their pronunciations.
The integrate of pronunciation and meaning is not inherent but depends one the determination of given social culture and custom arranged by idiomationess. In the teaching of listening comprehension , be familiar wiht each idiomationess is the foundation of distinguishing ambiguity.
4. Conclusion
Language cannot exist without ambiguity; which has represented both a curse and a blessing through the ages. Since there is no one “truth“ and no absolutes, we can only rely on relative truths arising from groups of people who, within their particular cultural systems, attempt to answer their own questions and meet their needs for survival.
Language is a very complex phenomenon. Meanings that can be taken for granted are in fact only the tip of a huge iceberg. Psychological, social and cultural events provide a moving ground on which those meanings take root and expand their branches.
Ambiguity is an eternal phenomenon of language ,which is changing frequently. So , for the learner whose thinking model and logical model has been governed by his mother tongue ,repeated practice is important , for getting the feeling of language.He should also do some valuable analysises on ambiguity in order to know the common rules of ambiguity and to learn how to distinguish it . In other words , he should use both “meaning “ and “logic “ as the foundation and reference.
Only by comparing the meaning of concept, refering the meaning of association, understanding the meaning of context , mastering the meaning of culture , can learner conquers the problems in listening comprehension brought by ambiguity. So , the ambiguity in the teaching of listening comprehension should not be ignored.
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