BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:The Puzzle of Ambiguity - Mohan Ganesalingam (Computer Laboratory)
DTSTART:20090309T123000Z
DTEND:20090309T133000Z
UID:TALK17387@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Diarmuid Ó Séaghdha
DESCRIPTION:At this session of the NLIP Reading Group we'll be discussing 
 the following paper:\n\nThomas Wasow\, Amy Perfors\, and David Beaver. 200
 5. "The Puzzle of Ambiguity":http://www.stanford.edu/~wasow/Lapointe.pdf. 
 In O. Orgun and P. Sells (eds) Morphology and The Web of Grammar: Essays i
 n Memory of Steven G. Lapointe. CSLI Publications.\n\n*Abstract*\nMontague
 ’s celebrated claim that no "important theoretical difference exists bet
 ween formal and natural languages” (Montague 1974\; 188) implies that\na
 mbiguity is not theoretically important\, for ambiguity abounds in natural
  languages\, whereas formal languages are unambiguous by design. More\ngen
 erally\, the pervasiveness of ambiguity in natural languages seems to be w
 idely regarded as unremarkable. Our objective in this paper is to argue\, 
 to the contrary\, that the highly ambiguous character of natural languages
  is surprising\,\nand that the very existence of ambiguity calls for an ex
 planation.\nSection 1 clarifies what we mean by ambiguity\, discussing the
  distinction between vagueness and ambiguity. We go on to identify several
  distinct types of ambiguity. Section 2 presents evidence that English is 
 massively ambiguous. Section 3 elaborates our central argument: if (as is 
 widely claimed) ambiguity impedes efficient communication\, then one would
  expect languages to evolve so as to reduce ambiguity\; but this does not 
 appear to have happened. Section 4 responds to some possible objections to
  the argument in Section 3. Section 5 explores some possible strategies fo
 r explaining ambiguity\, concluding with pointers to our ongoing research 
 on the subject.
LOCATION:GS15\, Computer Laboratory
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR