40038781
Description
Flashcards by Ana Alvarez, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by Ana Alvarez
about 1 year ago
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| Question | Answer |
| Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Terrorists | The ambiguity centres on the verb form to run down. It is created because the verb has different meanings: to run someone over with a vehicle, and pursue until captured. |
| Safety Experts Say School Bus Passengers Should be Belted | The ambiguity centres on the verb form belted. Again, it is created because the verb has different meanings. If one were belted, it would either mean that one was wearing a belt, or, in more colloquial usage, that one had been physically beaten. However, the development during the 20th century of cars, and then of traffic problems, and then of seatbelts and safety awareness, has given the word the additional meaning intended here of wearing a seatbelt. |
| Drunk Gets Nine Months in Violin Case | The ambiguity centres on the noun case. In the everyday register, this refers to the outer covering of an object, but in the legal register it refers to a law suit; this double meaning creates the ambiguity. |
| Farmer Bill Dies in House | The ambiguity centres on the nouns Bill and House. In the everyday register, Bill would be a person’s name (and a proper noun), and house would be his dwelling (a common noun). However, in the political register, bill would be a draft Act of Parliament (a common noun), and House would either be the House of Commons or the House of Lords (the two parts of the Houses of Parliament, and a proper noun). In addition, the verb dies has a literal meaning (the real death of a living organism) and a metaphorical one (the end of something). |
| Iraqi Head Seeks Arms | In the everyday register, the nouns head and arms refer to body parts. In the register of international war-mongering, however, they refer to a head of state and weapons respectively. |
| Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over | This ambiguity centres on the noun phrase Panda mating. In the first clause of this headline, the emphasis is on the mating, clearly referring to the physical act of sexual intercourse. In the second clause, one is expected to understand Panda mating as any process by which a panda might become impregnated. |
| Lung Cancer in Women Mushrooms | In the first interpretation, women mushrooms is a noun phrase, making the headline a rather absurd statement, suggesting both that mushrooms have a gender and that they are capable of contracting lung cancer. In the second interpretation, lung cancer in women is the noun phrase acting as the subject of the sentence, with the verb form mushrooms completing it. This creates the meaning that the incidence of lung cancer has seriously and dangerously increased amongst women. |
| Enraged Cow Injures Farmer with Ax | It all centres on which part of the headline with Ax modifies. If it is interpreted as an adverbial phrase modifying the verb form injures, the headline conjures an image of an axe-wielding bovine. If it is interpreted as an adjectival phrase modifying the noun farmer, it conjures an image of an axe-wielding farmer. In addition, the variant American spelling of the weapon in question raises an important issue of language variety. |
| Miners Refuse to Work after Death | In the first interpretation, the adverbial phrase after Death refers to the miners’ own deaths, creating an impression of zombie miners having a contretemps at the Job Centre. In the second, it refers to the death of a colleague in service, presumably the consequence of some appalling health and safety issue. If the headline was used in a spoken context, for example as part of a radio news broadcast, an additional ambiguity would exist because of the identical pronunciation of the two different words, miner and minor. |
| Red Tape Holds Up New Bridge | This ambiguity centres on the noun phrase Red Tape. In the everyday register, this means some kind of red strip of fabric, sticky or otherwise, which is bizarrely preventing a bridge from impending disaster. In the bureaucratic register, it means some legal complication that is preventing the bridge from being built. |
| New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group | This ambiguity centres on the comparative adjective Larger. This can either mean that the test group has more members, or that those members of the test group are larger in size. |
| Kids Make Nutritious Snacks | There is more than one ambiguity here. The first centres on the verb Make. Either the children are busy in the kitchen and the verb is dynamic; or the children constitute a nutritious snack and the verb is stative. The second ambiguity centres on the noun Kids. Either small children are connected in some way to nutritious snacks; or small goats are. |
| Squad Helps Dog Bite Victim | The ambiguity centres on who the squad is helping: a victim who has been bitten by a dog or a dog in order to bite a victim. |
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