Republic of Iraq

Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research 

University of Kerbala                                                                 

College of Education for Human Sciences 

Department of English 

The Lexicon

   Lexical ambiguity

By:

 

Huda Hameed Yacop

Jan. 2025

 

        

• The Lexicon

        The lexicon is a fundamental component of linguistic competence, working in tandem with grammar to form the basis of language understanding and production. Serving as an internalized dictionary, the lexicon houses a person’s vocabulary and linguistic knowledge, encompassing crucial details such as meaning, morphosyntax, and morphophonology for each word. This comprehensive repository reflects an individual’s language proficiency and understanding.

        In sentence production and comprehension, individuals may encounter both structural and lexical ambiguity, where words or phrases may have multiple interpretations. However, the language processing system efficiently and unconsciously resolves these ambiguities. Despite the inherent complexity and potential for variations in individual experiences, the lexicon remains a dynamic and adaptive resource that facilitates effective communication and comprehension in language use.

      The term lexicon generally refers to vocabulary, often represented in a dictionary as lexical entries. In generative grammar, the lexicon holds crucial information about the structural properties of lexical items in a language, encompassing semantic, syntactic, and phonological specifications. In later models, these properties are formalized as features enclosed in square brackets. For instance, word-class assignments may include features like noun [+N]. The mental lexicon refers to the stored mental representation of our knowledge about lexical items in a language.

 

        Linguistic competence involves both a lexicon and grammar. The lexicon is like an internalized dictionary containing all the words a person knows and the linguistic information connected with each such as meaning, morphosyntax, and morphophonology. Each lexical entry holds comprehensive information about a word. In essence, the lexicon forms a comprehensive repository of an individual’s vocabulary and linguistic understanding.

 

       The process of accessing the mental lexicon for production purposes involves using a propositional frame as a guide. When expressing a thought, individuals want to find the corresponding sound forms for the intended meaning. Ideally, the lexicon should organize entries based on meaning, creating associations such as Meaning → Sound. Essentially, the mental lexicon serves as a type of mental thesaurus.

        While it could be argued that lexical entries are mere associations of sound and meaning (Sound → Meaning) without implying directionality, this contradicts observed facts. Comprehension typically develops before production, suggesting that sound-based lexical entries naturally precede meaning-based ones. People comprehend speech rapidly, and given the astonishing speed of both comprehension and production, meaning-based lexical entries become essential for articulating thoughts. However, there is an observed imbalance, with comprehension occurring faster. When faced with the task of searching for the speech form of a word given its meaning (similar to a crossword-puzzle situation), individuals often encounter more difficulty than searching for a meaning given a speech sound (resembling a Scrabble-type situation). The prevalence of hearing more speech than producing it in daily life further reinforces the priority of sound-to-meaning connections in the mental lexicon.

• Lexical Storage and Lexical access

 

     The psychology of words and word meaning makes an important distinction between: 

 

       Lexical storage: how words are stored in our minds in relation to each other. 

Lexical access (or lexical retrieval): how we reach a word when we need it. Words in the mind are not stored independently; rather, they exhibit close semantic links with one another. This interconnectedness becomes apparent when a speaker is searching for a specific word, such as a fruit. In this process, the speaker begins with the general meaning, leading to the retrieval of a set of related words, including Apple, Plum, Pear, Grape, Banana, Orange, Peach, and Cherry. The speaker then refines the search based on additional characteristics, such as the fruit being yellowish, which narrows down the options to the first five fruits, and being roundish and of medium size, further limiting the possibilities to the first three fruits. This illustrates how the mind organizes words into semantic networks, allowing for efficient and contextually relevant word retrieval.

• Lexical ambiguity   

 

       Lexical ambiguity, also known as semantic ambiguity, is a linguistic phenomenon where a single word form can have multiple meanings. This ambiguity arises when a word can refer to different concepts based on context. For instance, the word bark can signify either the sound produced by a dog or the outer layer of a tree. The term semantic ambiguity emphasizes that it is the meaning of the word that is ambiguous, rather than its form or grammatical properties.

   

        A notable characteristic of the lexicon with significant psycholinguistic implications is that many words are multiply ambiguous. Many words exhibit several meanings, each with a distinct lexical entry. This ambiguity extends not only to meaning but also to form class. For instance, the word bat can be a noun referring to a flying mammal or a piece of baseball equipment. It can also function as a verb, describing the movement a cat makes while playing with a piece of string, or denote a specific movement made by eyelashes.

 

         In sentence production and comprehension, individuals encounter not only structural ambiguity but also lexical ambiguity, exemplified in sentences like:

 

1- The two men approached the bank.

2– Eat everything he gives you with relish.

 

       The word bank in (1) is multiply ambiguous, potentially referring to a place where money is deposited, the slope of land on the side of a river, or even a large mountain of snow. In (2), the term relish introduces lexical ambiguity as it could mean either a feeling or a condiment. This lexical ambiguity influences the syntactic structure of the sentence, making it both lexically and structurally ambiguous.