Disambiguation

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Disambiguation (from Latin dis- "decomposed, un-, apart," and the ambiguous "ambiguous, ambiguous") or disambiguation referred to in the linguistics , the resolution of linguistic ambiguity (ambiguity). A clear meaning is created for a word or an expression in its context through syntactic or semantic assignment (in contrast to an explanation of terms ). Depending on the field of work or theory in semiotics and linguistics Comparable designations, such as find Eindeutigmachung , disambiguation , Monosemierung or Entambiguisierung .

General

Words and expressions are seldom unique . They usually have several meanings that are only immediately clear in one particular context (see differentiation between designation and term ). The reader or listener of a text has various options for interpretation in the absence of contextual information. Thus, a "band" may be a book ( book tape ), or a book from a series of books , or a garment ( textile band ) or a packaging material ( tape ). In linguistics, methods are developed against this background that are intended to make expressions clearer for understanding. Such a procedure is called disambiguation . In linguistics, not only are individual characters, words and expressions examined for their ambiguity, but also individual sentences and entire texts, but also gestures and facial expressions . The factors of ambiguity can also be related to the medium - for example in text form of a newspaper article, as news text on the radio, as a speech by a politician on television. The more complex the examined object is, for example in terms of its forms of expression or its readings , the more complex the ambiguities may become. So it can not only be an interchangeable and variable designation in which the speaker decides whether to use pasture, meadow or green space for what he is looking at, but rather complex forms of meaning such as poetry , myth and ideology . In order to be able to disambiguate, it is often not only necessary to make a number of adjacent meanings distinguishable, but rather often entire layers of meaning.

Examples of ambiguity

The myth of the rose

Roland Barthes uses the example of the word "rose" to explain a three-part designation:

“Think of a bouquet of roses: I let it mean my passion. Isn't there just one important and one important, the rose and my passion? Not even that, in truth there are only the 'passionate' roses here. But in the field of analysis there are three terms, because these passionate roses can be broken down into roses and passion, and rightly so. One, like the other, existed before they combined and formed this third object, the sign. As little as I can separate the roses from the message they carry in the field of experience, just as little in the field of analysis can I equate roses as significant with roses as signs: the significant is empty, the sign is fulfilled, there is a meaning . "

Roland Barthes provides a language-theoretical or semiotic background that highlights the various elements of the expression "bouquet of roses" as concepts for semiotic analysis:

  1. the important (bouquet of roses)
  2. that meant (passion)
  3. the sign (the "passionate" roses)

The problem of clarification can be asked as follows: When is a bouquet of roses just a bouquet of flowers? When is a bouquet of roses an expression of an expression of love? In the latter case, it is a myth or a mythical statement.

If someone wants to express their passion for their lover with a bouquet of roses, the bouquet of roses has a meaning for the worshiper - according to the motto, "this is love". For the loved one, there may be the possibility that the bouquet of roses has no meaning for him , at least not necessarily the meaning of having received it as a symbol of love. The bouquet of roses can have a completely different meaning for him or represent a different symbol. This happens when he misunderstands the mark of his beloved. He could understand the bouquet as an invitation to visit his mother, or as an item for purchase that he may reluctantly find on his desk again. The achievement of disambiguation here would be to make the understanding between lover and beloved clear. Linguistics can ask about the reasons for the misunderstanding here. A justification can be established social norms. It can be unusual in a society for a woman to give a man flowers as a token of her feelings.

Dependence of the meaning according to the time

Whether the sentence “Let's go out to dinner” should be translated as Let's have lunch together or as Let's have dinner together depends on the time. In the case of translation programs, the time of the PC system is also taken into account and accordingly translated alternatively: at 1 pm with lunch , at 5 pm with dinner .

Clarification criteria

The complexity of language has an impact on the selection of the criteria according to which meanings are distinguished. So no general formula can be applied - for example no universal disambiguation algorithm . Instead, as in language technology, research is carried out as a method of various methods for evidence that is derived from the individual "sources of knowledge". Competing interpretations are also related to one another. Better and more extensive input of information can also make it easier to select the meaning. In addition to the acoustic information, video recordings can be used as a source of information for speech recognition. The so-called " multimodality " is improved by lip reading .

Mutual disambiguation

In speech technology in particular, different information can be merged with one another not only through speech recognition and lip reading, but also through gesture recognition, facial expression recognition and prosody recognition , in order to then be fed to the process of "reference resolution and disambiguation". As a result of this mutual disambiguation, this technology provides a representation of the meaning from different ways of receiving information and the subsequent processes of disambiguation.

Fields of application

In lexicology this procedure is used to structure the vocabulary . In semiotics , ambiguities are examined not only in the syntax, semantics and pragmatics of a text , but above all on the level of characters and symbols. In communication sciences, the ability to differentiate between meanings is seen as a competence feature (see also Linguistic Competence according to Chomsky ). Concrete application of the research results on disambiguation can also be found in the development of language programs and translation programs.

lexicology

Equivocation , homonymy and polysemy

Here, linguistic ambiguities are eliminated through explicit assignment and alternative options for linguistic assignment. The alternatives villa, apartment, hut and a large number of other expressions exist for the expression dwelling . Ambiguous expressions, called ambiguous lexemes in lexicology , can be divided into polysemes and homonyms .

One method of disambiguation or disambiguation in the case of homonymy is to emphasize the different emphasis on an expression. This applies to the word modern , for example ; Depending on the emphasis, a distinction can be made between modern with the emphasis as in the sentence "Rubbish that is rotting away", or modern as in the sentence "She loves to dress modern". The technical term for a meaning that overlaps here in modern is "incompatible lexeme connections". In the modern example , not only can emphasis be used as a means of disambiguation in the case of incompatible lexeme compounds , but also the method of explicit formulation . The expression “factory” can have different meanings if it is formulated as follows: a) “Mother goes to the factory at 6 o'clock” (factory as work place) b) “The factory is on strike” (factory as the workers). In this case it is the problem of polysemy . The problem in the case of the expression "factory" is not a linguistic one that can be solved by stress, but a structural one. Structural ambiguities indicate a different deep structure.

At the lexical level, the exclusion of incompatible lexeme connections serves to disambiguate. According to Theodor Lewandowski , the goal of disambiguation is to make an expression more understandable in terms of its speaker's intention. The expression is related to its context, the communicative context, the communication situation and its “reference relationship” or “denotation knowledge” or “ world knowledge ”.

See also

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: disambiguation  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heidrun Pelz: Linguistics: an introduction. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-455-10331-6 , p. 206.
  2. ^ Dietrich Homberger: Subject dictionary for linguistics. Reclam, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-15-010471-8 (keyword monosemination ).
  3. ↑ a b Hadumod Bußmann (Ed.): Lexicon of Linguistics. 3rd, updated and expanded edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-520-45203-0 , p. ?? (Keyword disambiguation ).
  4. ↑ Roland Barthes : The great family of people. In: Same: Myths of Everyday Life. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / M. 1964, page 90/91.
  5. ↑ Wolfgang Wahlster : Disambiguation through knowledge fusion: Basic principles of language technology. In: AI - Artificial Intelligence. Issue 1, 2002, p. 2 ( PDF: 200 kB, 6 pages on dfki.de ).
  6. ↑ Wolfgang Wahlster : Disambiguation through knowledge fusion: Basic principles of language technology. In: AI - Artificial Intelligence. Issue 1, 2002, p. 1 ( PDF: 200 kB, 6 pages on dfki.de ).
  7. ↑ a b Wolfgang Wahlster : Disambiguation through knowledge fusion: Basic principles of language technology. In: AI - Artificial Intelligence. Issue 1, 2002, p. 3 ( PDF: 200 kB, 6 pages on dfki.de ).
  8. ↑ a b Theodor Lewandowski : Linguistic dictionary. Part 1. Quelle & Meyer, Heidelberg / Wiesbaden 1973, ISBN 3-494-02020-5 , p. 152; quoted from Justo Fernández López: Disambiguation. ( Memento from September 30, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) In: culturitalia.uibk.ac.at. 2003, accessed November 12, 2019.