STRUCTURAL AMBIGUITY INTERPRETATION: A CASE STUDY OF SESOTHO LEARNERS OF ENGLISH

Pule Phindane
Department of Language and Social Sciences Education, Faculty of Humanities, Central University of Technology, Free State, Private Bag X 20539, Bloemfontein 9300. South Africa
E-mail: pphindane@cut.ac.za

Abstract
This study is based on the findings conducted to investigate how Sesotho native speakers (non-native speakers of English) interpret English ambiguous sentences. It has been established that Sesotho native speakers encounter problems with English sentences which involve structural ambiguity. The sample consisted of thirty participants who specialised in English. In this experiment the participants were given ambiguous sentences containing prepositional phrases, relative clauses, etc. For example, prepositional phrases like ‘the priest hit the boy with the bell’ in which the prepositional phrase (PP) can be attached either to the verb phrase (VP) or to the noun phrase (NP). It has been established that the students face difficulty in interpreting ambiguous structure and generally take the general meaning which can be understood from the sequence of words.            

Keywords: Sesotho, ambiguity, structural ambiguity, lexical ambiguity