(n.) The quality or state of being ambiguous; doubtfulness or uncertainty, particularly as to the signification of language, arising from its admitting of more than one meaning; an equivocal word or expression.
Example Sentences:
(1) Along the spectrum of loyalties lie multiple loyalties and ambiguous loyalties, and the latter, if unresolved, create moral ambiguities.
(2) This examination has proved an important help in the diagnosis of all the cases of sexual ambiguity.
(3) Exogenous activators of PKC stimulate insulin secretion from B cells, but attempts to define a physiological role for PKC by using inhibitors of this enzyme have produced ambiguous results.
(4) The aza analogue (RS)-3-hydroxy-2,5-pyrrolidinedione-3-acetic acid (6) of the five-membered citric anhydride (2) was prepared in the sequence citric acid----2-phenyl-1,3-dioxolan-4-one-5,5-diacetic acid (1)----citric acid beta-amide (3)----6 and used to resolve ambiguities in the mechanism of the citrate synthase reaction.
(5) Results obtained with this analog can be ambiguous, since 2-DOG can be phosphorylated by hexokinases of animal cells.
(6) Ultrasound has also proven useful in evaluating patients with ambiguous genitalia, amenorrhea and suspected PID and also is an effective means of localizing intrauterine contraceptive devices.
(7) Authors have previously published April 1988 a lecture where they criticize the bad denomination "passed coma" full of ambiguity for public mind, to which "brain death" ought to be preferred.
(8) There were, though, large omissions and ambiguities that will need to be filled in and clarified as polling day nears.
(9) "Prostatic acid phosphatase" is a term that has been used widely and ambiguously to refer to acid phosphatase, which 1) is elevated in the sera of patients with various diseases of the prostate, 2) is inhibited by one or more specific inhibitors, 3) attacks one or more specific substrates, 4) has certain unique antigenic properties, 5) is extracted from homogenates of prostate, and 6) is obtained from prostate secretions, etc.
(10) We have Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris coming to those platforms this December, and Tomb Raider: The Definitive Edition is available on PS4.” However, there is still some slight ambiguity about whether the deal is for Winter 2015 only.
(11) This ambiguity was resolved by using resealed ghosts, which are unable to incorporate oleic acid into phospholipids.
(12) This report describes a minicomputer-based translation system (TRANSOFT) that employs word order rearrangement followed by word-for-word translation and resolution of ambiguities based on context.
(13) Authors report a ring chromosome 18 (18 r) in a four year old boy, with low birth weight, retarded growth and development, microcephaly and plagiocephaly, horizontal nystagmus, ambiguous genitalia, clinodactyly of the fifth finger, distal axial triradius, whorls pattern in 8 fingers in dermatoglyphic.
(14) Membrane potential trajectories of 68 bulbar respiratory neurones from the peri-solitary and peri-ambigual areas of the brain-stem were recorded in anaesthetized cats to explore the synaptic influences of post-inspiratory neurones upon the medullary inspiratory network.
(15) As well, two-dimensional 15N-1H heteronuclear spectroscopy was used to resolve a number of ambiguities present in the homonuclear spectra due to resonance redundancies.
(16) The axon of the labeled bulbospinal neuron had axonal collaterals which were distributed within the region of the nucleus ambiguous of the ipsilateral medulla.
(17) Of the 406 tests there have been 85 positive, 296 negative and 25 ambiguous reports.
(18) In a second experiment schizophrenics were significantly different from the depressives in showing less inclination to select a metaphorical meaning to an ambiguous adjective in a sentence.
(19) Three-quarters of the sample was impaired on at least one of four discourse tests (knowing the alternate meanings of ambiguous words in context; getting the point of figurative or metaphoric expressions; bridging the inferential gaps between events in stereotyped social situations; and producing speech acts that express the apparent intentions of others).
(20) Yet, the apparent ambiguities of science confuse the courts, the juries, and the public.
Disambiguation
Definition:
Example Sentences:
(1) The tasks which appeared to present the most difficulties for the patients were written spelling, pragmatic processing tasks like sentence disambiguation and proverb interpretation.
(2) These results are discussed within both an attentional and a connectionist account of homograph disambiguation.
(3) The Cue Interaction Model overcomes this by using monocular cues to disambiguate between the "correct matches" and the "incorrect matches".
(4) Evidence of context-US associations was observed in rats that began training on Postnatal Day 17, but no evidence for a disambiguation function was found until pups were 20- to 23-days-old.
(5) Three computer models are then presented that simulate normal and schizophrenic performance in the Stroop task, the continuous performance test, and a lexical disambiguation task.
(6) These findings provided some support for a postdecision model of ambiguity processing which suggests that both meanings of an ambiguity are always processed, even when prior disambiguating context is available.
(7) Contextual facilitation of disambiguation of words appearing in the perturbed text that is derived from the unperturbed and natural one by deleting words randomly, lets the language processor revise the previous semantic commitments continuously.
(8) In experiment 2, the disambiguating words had a significant effect on meaning interpretation of the homographs that was independent of visual field of presentation.
(9) In the ambiguous figure "my husband and my father-in-law", it was necessary to simulate visual information processing so that attention was directed to the multiple features in the figure to disambiguate the ambiguous figure.
(10) The strategy adopted was to limit the linguistic disambiguation and apply probabilistic rules, in order to speed up the analytic process.
(11) Both the disambiguation effect and its reversal by preexposure were replicated in the present study; however, 24-month-olds' rate of selecting unfamiliar over familiar kinds was less when they were simply asked to choose between the items than when they were asked to identify the referents of unfamiliar names.
(12) Sentence type (ambiguous, disambiguous, and control) was tested under three conditions ("recall," "define word," and "choose best meaning").
(13) In contrast, the maximum average number of different lexical meanings per word that would make lexical disambiguation programmable is e = 2.718.
(14) In Experiment 2, prior disambiguation eliminated the long gaze durations on nonbiased target words but resulted in long gaze durations on biased target words if the context demanded the subordinate meaning.
(15) In a set of experiments involving 35 pairs of phonetically similar sentences representing seven types of structural contrasts, the perceptual evidence shows that some, but not all, of the pairs can be disambiguated on the basis of prosodic differences.
(16) In studies with visual reading, disambiguation has been found to have a large effect on first-pass scanning.
(17) Real perspective shape transformations affecting the elements of the display were most effective in disambiguating the display.
(18) The meanings of the ambiguous sentences the subjects perceived tended to be those that were consistent with the biasing context, even when that meaning was inconsistent with the meaning of the disambiguating sentence.
(19) In an experiment derived from Lackner and Garrett (1972) 80 subjects were given a dichotic listening task where they were presented with ambiguous sentences to an attended ear and disambiguating sentences to the other, unattended, ear.
(20) After a crude survey concerning some important aspects of speech and expressive behaviour a hypothesis is outlined saying that the verbal and the nonverbal content of the speech signal are not just transferred side by side; rather there exist close interconnections between the linguistic and the expressive structures, which is shown regarding the speech melody; the 'cultural' language code makes use of a predominantly 'non-cultural' code of vocalisations for the purpose of linguistic disambiguation and speeding up the communication process.