|
| Index Animi Mei |
|
|
|
home :: ling :: small-ambiguity
Small Ambiguity
Reading an article
online, I came across the following sentence, and thought of a few different
ways of parsing it:
Prosecutors say Stone pleaded guilty to four abuse counts after
Hatcher got involved and was jailed for 14 years.
The two of the more viable options I see are:
- Stone pleaded guilty and for 14 years was jailed
- Hatcher got involved and for 14 years was jailed
There is another option,
- Hatcher, for 14 years, got involved and was jailed
but that doesn't jive with me at all. I know I'm rusty with my understanding
of what is telic and what is atelic, and the Wikipedia article didn't
help me decide. From what I remember, telic describes when an action is
inherently instantaneous (e.g., scored a goal), whereas atelic describes when
an action is inherently durational (e.g., building a house). In this case
above, I see "got involved" is essentially instantaneous. However, the "was
jailed" is not inherently atelic or telic, but with "for 14 years" tagged
after it, there must be duration to to it and therefore it is atelic. Anyway,
the two first options are disambiguated because of the context of the
article: Teri Hatcher is the Hatcher being referred to, and Stone is the only
one being charged with a crime. This instance of ambiguity in a narrow
context, but disambiguity in the surrounding context enforces my interest in
pragmatics :-)
[all posts in /ling/]
[permanent link]
|
|
|
