Chapter 6: Syntax
6.17 Trees: Structural ambiguity
When we talked about compounds, we saw a first example of structural ambiguity: cases where the same string of morphemes can have more than one structure, with each structure corresponding to a different
interpretation.
The same thing is found in syntax. Consider the following example:
(1) | I saw someone with a telescope. |
This has two possible interpretations:
- I was using a telescope, and I saw someone. (PP modifies VP)
- I saw someone, and that person had a telescope. (PP modifies NP)
In the first interpretation, the prepositional phrase [PP with a telescope] modifies the verb phrase headed by saw. In the second interpretation, the same prepositional phrase modifies the noun phrase someone. These two structures are illustrated below:
![Tree diagram: [I saw someone with a telescope], [with a telescope] is child and sibling of V'](https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/app/uploads/sites/1310/2022/02/617_tree1_sawwithtelescope.png)
![Tree diagram: [I saw someone with a telescope], [with a telescope] is child and sibling of N' above [N someone]](https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/app/uploads/sites/1310/2022/02/617_tree2_personwithtelescope.png)
The same will be true for other cases of structural ambiguity—each meaning will correspond to a different potential tree structure.