Which of the following sentences is lexically ambiguous

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

Lexical ambiguity arises when a single word in a sentence has two or more unrelated meanings, so the sentence can be interpreted in different ways without changing its grammatical structure.

1. Relevant knowledge points and concepts
- Lexical ambiguity (polysemy/homonymy): one word with multiple distinct senses (e.g., "bank" = financial institution or river edge; "bat" = flying mammal or sport implement).
- Syntactic (structural) ambiguity: same words but different syntactic attachments give different meanings (e.g., prepositional-phrase attachment, modifier scope).

2. Step-by-step reasoning for each option
- "My cousin drove his car into the bank."
  - Key word: bank. Two readings: (a) drove the car into a financial institution (crashed into building); (b) drove the car into the river bank or river-side (drove down onto/into the bank of a river). Because "bank" has distinct senses, this is lexical ambiguity.
- "A bat sailed toward me."
  - Key word: bat. Two readings: (a) a bat (flying mammal) sailed/flew toward me; (b) a bat (baseball/club) sailed (was hit or thrown) toward me. The noun has two unrelated senses, so the sentence is lexically ambiguous.
- "The business person on the board that I sent a letter to last week was unfortunately too busy to see me."
  - Ambiguity here, if any, arises from long noun phrase complexity or attachment/pronominal reference, not from a word with multiple unrelated lexical senses. Primarily a syntactic/attachment or referential complexity, not lexical.
- "I greeted the man with a big smile."
  - This is a structural (attachment) ambiguity: did I use the big smile, or did the man have the big smile? The words themselves are not lexically ambiguous.
- "The young men and women built the house."
  - This is coordination ambiguity at most (whether grouping is (young men) and women), but not an ambiguity caused by a single polysemous word.

3. Why the correct answers are correct
- Both chosen sentences contain a single word with two distinct, common meanings (bank, bat). That meets the definition of lexical ambiguity.

4. Conclusion
Therefore the lexically ambiguous sentences are "My cousin drove his car into the bank." and "A bat sailed toward me." This matches the provided correct answers.

Which of the following sentences is lexically ambiguous多项选择题

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