الفهرس 
Chapter OneOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
This study aims at exploring linguistic ambiguity as a phenomenon that needs to be tackled through a semantico-pragmatic perspective, where both semantic and pragmatic considerations interweave to give the intended meaning of an ambiguous linguistic form. Therefore, this study is descriptive, adopting a quantitative-qualitative method of research in order to investigate the influence of linguistic ambiguity on the participants’ understanding of the intended meaning of some ambiguous items that are independent of their context of use. It examines the role of the sentential context in understanding the intended meaning. For the purpose of the study, the researcher conducted a test of thirty ambiguous items, representing the three types of linguistic ambiguity: lexical, syntactic, and pragmatic. The test was applied to fifty participants, who represent fourth-year students, Faculty of Arts, Damietta University, and the data obtained were analyzed. The results of the data analysis revealed that linguistic ambiguity challenges the participants’ understanding of the intended meaning. It showed that the sentential context, in most cases, did not provide the information needed to clarify the exact interpretations of the ambiguous items. Thus, additional information was needed to comprehend the intended meaning and to resolve ambiguity. These results reinforced the assumptions of Context-dependent Models, Constraint-based Model, and the Use Theory of Meaning. They proved that the intended interpretation of an ambiguous item is one that satisfies all constraints: semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic, paving the way to the conclusion that both semantic knowledge and pragmatic knowledge are of equal importance in considering the meaning of an ambiguous linguistic form.