Forms of Linguistic Ambiguity: a Case Study of Teaching Persian ...

Linguistic Ambiguity• Linguistic ambiguity arises when a word ora from can be interpreted in more than oneway. Ambiguity is usually context-based.The same word or a sentence can beambiguous in one context andunambiguous in another.

Ambiguity Forms• Lexical• Structural/syntactic• Cultural• Semantic

Examples in English and FarsiAlthough each mentioned ambiguitycan be an inherent part of anylanguage, but as we will see, in Farsione can find varieties of eachambiguity with numerous examples.

Lexical ExamplesThe word “bank” could mean both afinancial institution as well as strip ofland next to a river. “Suit” couldmean a set of dress as well as a “suit”in the court.

Among words browed from Arabic we findnumerous cases of Lexical ambiguity.Example:قلب rights, meaning salary as well as حقوقmeaning heart as well as fake.Among one syllable Farsi words alsolexical ambiguity is rife. Example:Breath # Next toDoor # in (preposition)River # searchدَ‏ م # دَ‏ مدَ‏ ر#‏ دَرجو#‏ جو

Compounded Lexical Ambiguity:Absence of Short Vowels in writingونچMany Farsi words can be read withdifferent vowels having different meanings:Revisit the words we had earlier.# دُمto / tail, breath, next /feather, پُر # full /# river,search, barley, atmosphere /two,و / because, why چون # running,/ رو go, face, onدَ‏ مپَردُر#دَ‏ رجو door, in, gem جَ‏ و ‏#جُو دو#ُ‏ دو‏#رُ‏

Cultural AmbiguityFarsi is rife with redundancies which maybecome another cause of ambiguity.Redundant expressions appear more informal speech and writing.Redundant expressions can be of religious,cultural and of ornate categories.روانشاد،‏ خلد آشيان،‏ redundancies: Religious

Cultural Ambiguity: Ornate/FormalRedundancy instances of Persian/Farsi cannot beaccurately enumerated. However, حشو مليح wasconsidered to be an admirable writing and anoratory technique. Examples:are only few بلانسبت،‏ قابلی ندارد،‏ دور از حضور شماsamples to be named. There are also words quiteoften used having no real meaning or role in asentence. Instead of saying کار او تحسين شد , theyکار او مورد تحسين واقع شد ‏/قرار گرفت.‏ say

Syntactic AmbiguityArises because of complex phrase orwording. Example: he ate all the cookieson the table.مرغ آماده خوردن است.‏Which means the hen needs to be fed. Italso means the chicken is ready to eat.درحملۀ طالبان دو نفرغيرنظامی،‏ چهارسرباز ناتو وپانزده نفر اززشورشيان کشته شدند.‏

Semantic AmbiguitySemantic ambiguity arises when a word ora phrase is intended to convey a meaningbeyond or other than its commonlyknown meaning. A good number of legaltexts and, sometimes, ordinary newsitems may carry semantic ambiguities.روز دوشنبه قاچاقچيانيکه توسّط پاسداران در مرزهایشمالی دستگير شده بودند بعد از بازجوئی آزاد شدند.‏

Farsi Specific Ambiguities: ScriptRelated Ambiguities•Absence of short vowels•Multiple signs for a single sound•Narrowness and limit of the number ofsimple verbs in Farsi•Defective extinct verbs and their existingderivatives in different forms.•Waning verbs of Farsi

Absence of Short vowels:The absence of short vowels createsambiguities and challenges the reading andwriting skills of Farsi learners:دَرد / sediment Pain / دَم / دُم Breath /tailبَرده / taken Slave / رو / رُو Face / goI take / I cutمی بَرم / می بُرم full Feather / پَر / Because / howچون / چون barley River / جو / Ship / wrestlingکِشتی / کُ‏ شتی Butter / globe کَ‏ ره ‏/کُ‏ ره دُردپُربُردهجُو

Multiple Signs for a single SoundMost Arabic signs which carry differentsounds they all are pronounced identicallywith the same sound:ت،‏ طث،‏ س،صز،‏ ذ،‏ ض،‏ ظا،ع،ءگ،‏ ق،‏ غح،ه

Limited Number of Simple Verbs inFarsiThere are very few simple verbs in Farsi. Suchverbs only express mechanical actions.Abstract concepts are expressed throughcompound verbs made of a Farsi physicalperformance as helping verb, and an abstractnoun or idea, usually an Arabic word. By thesame token, without Arabic words, a learnerof Farsi as a second language will hardly beable to reach 1+ of ILR level.

Waning Verbs and Their DerivativesThere are many words in Farsi thatthey are derivatives of the verbs whichare extinct, and they do not exist anymore.Derivative Infinitive Derivative Infinitiveخسته خستگیرُفتن رفت و روب خستن/فريبا دلفريبآشفتگی آشفته فريفتن//آشفتن/نهفتن نهفته فرسودنفرسايشفرسودگی

Arabic Words and the Choiceof Farsi Helping VerbsIs it a random choice or convention?/ ساختنتفعيل + شدن/‏ گرديدن ‏/کردن /دادنتعمير-‏نمودنتدريس – تعليم – تحويل – تشکيل –ملاحظه – مواجهه – مکالمه – مصادره –ثبت – رفع – ربط – ضعف – قطع –متأثّرنقل- متشبّث –متوقّف – متوسّل – متشکًر –

Can We Minimize the affects of theAmbiguities for the Second LanguageLearners ?YesHow?