A Tentative Approach to Ambiguity in English Sentences

As a common language phenomenon, ambiguity exists in various languages, and English is no exception. While ambiguity makes the language lively, and interesting, it also brings great troubles to the learning and practice of English. This article tries to classify English ambiguity from four aspects: phonetics, lexical, syntactical, and pragmatic aspects. It aims to clarify the causes of English language ambiguity. At the same time, it points out that only when sentences are placed in a specific language context can the semantics be clarified. Through the analysis of ambiguous sentences, we hope to deepen the understanding of English language and improve the effectiveness of English language communication.