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Word ambiguity
by RS  admin@robinsnyder.com : 1024 x 640


1. Word ambiguity
Truth can be elusive as natural language in inherently ambiguous.

That is why grammar checkers are not very reliable.

2. Time and fruit
Words can be ambiguous when context is omitted (or distorted). In this case, the former "flies" is a verb while the latter "flies" is a noun.

This is a linguistic example of syntactic ambiguity sometimes called a "garden path sentence".

Meaning: "I don't smell good" vs. "I don't smell well".
There was a farmer had a dog and bingo was his name, ...

Who is "bingo"? Aside: Was the farmer named bingo or was the dog named bingo?

Invitation: We would like to invite you over for dinner.

Who is the invitation from? Aside: Is the invitation from friends or cannibals?

How is a computer supposed to decide if a human cannot understand what is meant?

3. Telescope
Consider the following sentence. Who has the telescope? Does the woman have the telescope? Or, is the man using the telescope to look at the woman? So, truth can be elusive as even language can be ambiguous.

4. Meaning
Natural language is inherently ambiguous. It depends on what the definition of "is" is. Bill Clinton's grand jury impeachment testimony, 1998.
When a human cannot understand the sentence, how can a computer be expected to understand the sentence?

5. Paragraph of recommendation
Here is a paragraph of recommendation.

To whom it may concern: You wrote to ask me for my opinion of John, who has applied for a position in your department. Source: Paulos, J. (1995). A mathematician reads the newspaper. New York: Basic Books., p. 43.

That is, while (many) computer languages are designed to be unambiguous, natural language is inherently ambiguous.

Information sign More: John Allen Paulos



6. Natural language
Projects promoting programming in "natural language" are intrinsically doomed to fail. Edsger Dijkstra (computer scientist)

Information sign More: Edsger Dijkstra

7. End of page

by RS  admin@robinsnyder.com : 1024 x 640