A COGNITIVE SEMANTIC STUDY OF LEXICAL AMBIGUITY IN SELECTED ENGLISH LITERARY TEXTS

Abstract

The current study is an effort to examine and explore forms of cognitive ambiguity that is found in literature in selected poems in order to find out the influence of lexical ambiguity in literature and how it comprises a tension that drives creativity. This study aims at highlighting those ambiguous expressions, which make a complication between the speaker/writer and his/her hearer/reader. These expressions which have multiple meanings shape a trouble and lack of definition on the part of the receiver. It has been discovered that ambiguities come from poets' intentional or unintentional usage of polysemy or homonymy to create tension in their writings. As well, context exceptionally essential and plays a crucial part in deciding the meaning of words. The data in the present study are collected from different literary works in order to achieve the categories of the adopted model.