Syntactic Ambiguity

 

Globally ambiguous:

A globally ambiguous sentence is one that has at least two distinct interpretations. After one has read the entire sentence, the ambiguity is still present. Rereading the sentence does not resolve the ambiguity. Global ambiguities are often unnoticed because the reader tends to choose the meaning he or she understands to be more probable. One example of a global ambiguity is "The woman played with the baby in the green shirt." In this example, the baby could be wearing the green shirt or the woman could be wearing the green shirt; or, there could be a large green shirt inside which a woman is playing with a baby.

 

Locally ambiguous:

A locally ambiguous sentence is a sentence that contains an ambiguous phrase but has only one interpretation. The ambiguity in a locally ambiguous sentence briefly persists and is resolved by the end of the utterance.

One example of a local ambiguity is "The cat jumped over the fence stretched." The reader processes the sentence thinking that the verb phrase is "jumped" when the correct verb phrase is "stretched."

 

Examples:

The duke yet lives that Henry shall depose.

Eduardum occidere nolite timere bonum est.

I'm glad I'm a man, and so is Lola.

John saw the man on the mountain with a telescope.

Flying planes can be dangerous.

The word of the Lord came to Zechariah, son of Berekiah, son of Iddo, the prophet.