Introducing Circuit Theory, Slides of Circuit Theory

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Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

COMMUNICATION SKILLS I

(ENGL 157)

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

ERRORS IN SENTENCES

AMBIGUITY MISRELATED/DANGLING MODIFICATION

AMBIGUITY

• (^) Ambiguity is a language situation where a

sentence or a part of it has more than one

meaning or can reasonably be given more

than one interpretation.

• (^) Eg. I met Mr. Anane at the court.
• (^) The possible interpretations to this

sentence emanate from the possible uses

of “Court”.

AMBIGUITY cont’d

Please note: Intended Vs. Unintended Ambiguity

• (^) Intended Ambiguity: This is where a speaker/writer deliberately uses ambiguity for specific purpose/effect. Eg. In literature, politics, music etc.
• (^) Consider this, “The law is not an empty barrel but the House of Lords (HoLs)”.
• (^) Meaning 1: The law is not an empty barrel but the law is the HoLs.
• (^) Meaning 2: The law is not an empty barrel, but the HoLs is an empty barrel.

AMBIGUITY cont’d

• (^) The speaker can refer to M1 to avoid the charge of Contempt of Parliament though he/she may have intended to abuse the HoLs with M2.
• (^) Unintended Ambiguity: This is where a speaker/writer is not aware that what he/she said or wrote is ambiguous.
• (^) Our concern, on the subject of ambiguity, principally lies on the ambiguous statement which is not intended because it is a feature of bad writing/speech and must be avoided for effective communication.

TYPES OF AMBIGUITY cont’d

• (^) Conceptual Ambiguity: This occurs when a

word is used to refer to different concepts

• (^) Eg1. The battery was fully charged (electricity)
• (^) Eg2. He was charged with contempt (legal)
• (^) Eg3. The Registrar was charged with

students’ affairs (responsibility)

TYPES OF AMBIGUITY cont’d

• (^) Structural Ambiguity: This occurs as a result of how words are put together as structures.
• (^) It occurs from many sources. Some of these are:
  1. Unclear Modification

2. Wrong placement of adverbs of frequency
3. Making clauses nominal
4. Wrong placement of pronoun

TYPES OF AMBIGUITY cont’d

• (^) Wrong placement of adverbs of frequency:
• (^) Eg2. The lecturers who watched the movie frequently commended it. (frequently watched or commended it frequently?)
• (^) M1. The lecturers who frequently watched the movie commended it.
• (^) M2. The lecturers who watched the movie commended it frequently.

TYPES OF AMBIGUITY cont’d

• (^) Making Clauses Nominal
• (^) Eg3. The killing of the director incited the staff to riot. (did the director do the killing or someone else did?)
• (^) M1. The killing (done) by the director incited the staff to riot.
• (^) M2. The CEO’s killing of the director incited the staff to riot.

Exercise

Instruction : Each of the following sentences is ambiguous. Rewrite each sentence twice to show two acceptable meanings:

1. An advertising agent who had entered the conference hall briskly delivered a talk on laptop computers.
2. The Asafo Company spotted the missing child with a basket of fruit that was going mould.
3. At that party I spotted a guest with a smile that quickly captivated me.
4. We were introduced to the manager with a lovely face that we found agreeable. (Opoku-Agyemang 1998:87-88)

Misrelated/Dangling Modification

• (^) It is an absence of clarity normally attributed to the misplacement of the sentence modifier (Opoku-Agyemang 1998).
• (^) This occurs as a result of the construction of sentences in a way that modifiers are attached or attributed to the wrong subject or to a subject which cannot be identified in the sentence (Sekyi-Baidoo 2003)
• (^) It is the attachment of modifiers to constructions which they (modifiers) are not to modify or qualify (Afreh 2006).

Causes of Misrelated/Dangling Modification

• (^) Misplacement of Subject: This is where the subject that is to be modified is wrongly placed or positioned in the sentence.
• (^) Eg1: Moving towards the hall of residence , the goat hit the car.
• (^) Eg2: As a student , the Principal advised George to study hard.
• (^) Correction: Place or position the subject in the right position.
• (^) CEg1: Moving towards the hall of residence, the car hit the goat.
• (^) CEg2: As a student, George was advised by the Principal to study hard.

Causes of Misrelated/Dangling Modification

Cont’d

• (^) Omission of Subject: This is where the subject that is to be modified is omitted from the sentence.
• (^) Eg1: While watching TV , the lights went off.
• (^) Eg2: Running into the room , her wedding date was announced.
• (^) Correction: Introduce the missing subject.
• (^) CEg1: While we were watching TV, the lights went off.
• (^) CEg2: Running into the room, she announced her wedding date.

Reading Assignment

Read on the following and make your personal notes on them:

• (^) Forms of Misrelated/Dangling Modification (Afreh 2006; Sekyi-Baidoo 2003)
• (^) Exceptions to the prohibition on misrelated/dangling modification (Afreh 2006) or Acceptable Misrelated/Dangling Modification (Sekyi-Baidoo 2003)

Exercise

Instruction : Each of the following sentences has misrelated/dangling modification. Rewrite each into an acceptable form:

1. Having arrived late for practice, a written excuse was needed.
2. Without knowing his name, it was difficult to introduce him.
3. To improve his results, the experiment was done again.
4. After reading the original study, the article remains unconvincing.
5. The experiment was a failure, not having studied the lab manual carefully.