The Structural - Syntactic Ambiguity and Supra - Segmental Means

Abstract

The present paper deals with the structural-syntactic ambiguity in the light of supra-segmental phonetics. An attempt is made to demonstrate the gap between oral human speech and its written version. The type of linguistic jokes which is based on the structural-syntactic ambiguity, i.e. the ambiguity induced by the syntactic structure of the sentence is chosen as an object of this study. The main purpose of the paper is to draw attention to the difference between the normal pronunciation of utterances in oral speech and the written text of such so-called structural-syntactic jokes and find out the main factors causing ambiguity in the latter. After analyzing some examples of such jokes, we will come to conclusion that they cannot be ambiguous in language unintentionally, and only intentional misinterpretation of their written text can induce humorous effect and laughter. Otherwise, we might admit the failure of human language in carrying out its main functions, viz communicative and expressive functions. This gap between oral speech and written text occurs due to the lack of the supra-segmental devices, viz contrastive stress, pause and tone level in written texts.