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Home , Ambiguity, Pragmatics, Syntactic ambiguity

Grazer Linguistische Studien 65 (Frühjahr 2006) 17

Ahmed Ali Ibrahim

A S e m a n t ic -P ra g m a tic A p p r o a c h to A m b ig u it y . A pplied t o W. H. A u d e n 's Th e Un k n o w n C it iz e n .

1. Introduction

The present study mainly deals with a linguistic of W. H. Auden's (1981) The Un­ known Citizen. The semantic-pragmatic approach adopted in the analysis is that of Leech (1980, 1981, 1983), Grice (1975) and SperberAVilson (1986) whose frameworks are re­ garded as the bricks and mortar in the field of and . Although seman­ tics and pragmatics have been differently approached by different and recent linguists such as Crystal(2004), Cruse (2000), Channell (1994), Cornwell (1997), Larson/Segal (1995), Lyons (1995) and Wierzbicka (1996), the present study will mainly adopt those who origi­ nate the decades earlier such as Leech (1981) and Grice (1975). Since there are many definitions for the term ,it is wise to on the pillars of the field who deal with that term. It has been differently defined by Norrman ( 1977), Page ( 1985), Edlow (1975), Schaar ( 1965), Empson ( 1961 ), Kaplan/Kris (1948) and Rimmon ( 1977). Each one of them adopted a framework which is relatively different from his contemporaries. The analysis will yield some findings concerning the pragmatically - as well as the semantically - ambiguous structures in Auden's poem. In other ,both semantic and pragmatic tools of analysis will be used to disambiguate certain phrases and expressions in the poem. The analysis will be followed by some pedagogical implications for teachers as well as students of English and literature. The following section will mainly handle related defini­ tions on the . n. Definitions Ambiguity has been defined differently by numerous semanticists and pragmaticians. The term is synonymous with double , lack of clarity and . Norrman (1977: 6) bases the on the dictionary definition as a or a which is obscure, doubtful, questionable and not clearly defined. Page (1985: 13) defines it as poly­ valence and diversity. However, the temi will be useful if it is rescued from loose usage because previous definitions looked at ambiguity as something vague, indeterminate and obscure. It should be noted in the present study how ambiguity is used as a stylistic device aiming at aesthetic effects. There are several factors which may render a sentence ambigu­ 18 A. A. Ibrahim

ous; these factors may be phonological like when pronouncing homophonous words such as (reign - rain ) or it could be due to lexical like the word bank in : 1) He walked by the bank where the word bank means either the financial institution or the river bank. There might be syntactic reasons behind ambiguous structures like the multiple meanings in:

2) The policemen were told to stop fighting in the park.

The passive structure in (2) followed by the infinitive to stop makes us, as readers, unable to know who does the actual fight; is it the policemen or somebody else. Moreover,the prepositional phrase in the park should be modified with further linguistic structures. In this particular , Edlow (1975: 427) asserts that "a sentence is lexically ambiguous if its ambiguity results from at least one of its words having two mean­ ings (admitting of paraphrases that are not paraphrases of one another) even if that word is isolated from its containing sentence ... On the other hand . a sentence is syntactically ambiguous if its ambiguity is due to its structure or , rather than to one of its words having more than one sense." Therefore, we have sentences which are lexically ambiguous and others whose ambiguity is due to their syntactic structure. This division may create a problem when considering a sentence like His will be done, an example which is mentioned by Small/Cotterell/Ta- nenhaus (1985) and we need to detect where the source of ambiguity is. Syntactically, the sentence can be parsed as: - (his ) + noun (will ) + copula (be ) + (done ). or - Pronoun ( his) + ellipted noun (0) + auxiliary (will) + copula (be) +verb(done). Consequently, it is not easy in this particular context to draw a line between lexical and because the word will can be both noun and modal auxiliary. Since ambiguity mainly relies on lexical items , the present study will mainly deal with this category because other types of ambiguity like phonological and grammatical have more finite and clearly defined systems where lexical items are more open to word coinage and historical changes of their meanings. By lexical items, Trask (1993) means a word re­ garded as a comparatively abstract w'hich has a more or less consistent meaning or but which can possibly vary in form for grammatical puiposes. For instance, the word dog and dogs are both particular forms of the lexical item DOG. and takes, took, tak­ ing are particular items of the verb TAKE. An example from the poem below may be the w'ord report which has been mentioned several times in different forms. Schaar (1965) asserts that literary w'orks of art involve numerous rewritings and revisions. This is the w'hy critics tend to claim that ambiguity in Literature is deliberate. Among others who are interested in defining ambiguity is Empson (1961: 19) who regards ambiguity as A Semantic-Pragmatic Approach to Ambiguity 19

"any verbal nuance, however slight, which gives room for alternative reactions to the same piece of language." This definition has been criticized since it gives room to readers' reactions and therefore, placing the responsibility of identifying ambiguity squarely on the reader. His seven types of ambiguity can be summed up as follows. First, the ambiguity' arises when compari­ sons with several points of likeness occur. An example of that is the use of metaphor such as:

3) His words stabbed me in the heart.

It seems that there is a similarity between the words in (2) and the dagger which may cause a type of ambiguity that requires some efforts. Second, it occurs when two or more alternative meanings are fully resolved into one where ambiguity is resolved by choosing one of the meanings. Third, ambiguity takes place when two apparently unconnected meanings are simultaneously given and each meaning is discrete and alternative in the context. Fourth, the ambiguity shows some alternative mean­ ings combining together to make clear a complicated state of mind in the author. Fifth, it is the type of ambiguity when the author is discovering his idea in the act of . The reader here should know what is going on in the writer's mind. Sixth, the reader is forced to invent interpretations or projection, i. e. the reader imposes his own onto a word. Seventh,the type of ambiguity which marks a division in the author's mind, and this - to Empson - is the most difficult one. From the foregoings, it can be inferred that Empson relies heavily on the readers'efforts to resolve ambiguity. Others like Kaplan/Kris (1948) classify ambiguity into five different types: a) Disjunctive ambiguity: This occurs when the separate meanings function in the process of interpretation as al­ ternatives excluding and inhibiting each other. For instance,the word bank in (1) has two different meanings and each meaning excludes the occurrence of the other one. The speaker can not mean both meanings simultaneously in a given context. b) Additive ambiguity: The separate meanings here are no longer fully exclusive but are included one in the other. For example,the word rich in clusters like rich man and rich soil where both share the core sense of abundance and excellence. c) Conjunctive ambiguity: This occurs when the separate meanings are jointly effective in the interpretation. In other words,each member of the pair consists of a different partial meaning. This under­ lies paradoxical phrases like 4) More haste , less speed.

It is clear in (4) that there are two distinct meanings that are responded to conjointly. 20 A. A. Ibrahim d) Integrative ambiguity: This occurs when its manifold meanings support one another and they integrate to ­ duce a complex, yet unified, pattern. The example shrunken seas in Eliot's (1974) "Sweeney Among the Nightingales" has been interpreted as (wither, old, dried up) or the state of the (ebb and flow) and other suggested associations like (contract, decline, de­ cay). Therefore, all meanings here are interwoven and further, they are contextually bound. Consequently, the interpreter of Eliot's line should look at it in comparison with the whole poem. e) Projective ambiguity : This occurs when responses vary altogether according to the interpreter. The term in such cases - as Kaplan/Kris indicate - is said to be hopelessly vague and is imposed or projected by the interpreter. This is the reason why ambiguity mainly depends on two main factors which primarily determine understanding utterances viz the reader and the context. From the aforementioned classification, it is wise to remember that multiple meaning is a broad phenomenon or an umbrella word which is manifested in many ways one of which is through ambiguity. The preceding discussion proves that ambiguity has not been used to mean the same thing in various of the subject. This must lead us to redefine the term 'ambiguity' in the following section.

Redefining ambiguity Considering ambiguity as a term which has a double or multiple meanings is inadequate. The word meaning itself is intriguing. Chomsky (1962) gives examples of different usages of the verb mean : 5) These pictures mean a lot to him (have importance).

6) He may not have pleased everyone.but he means well (intends). 7) He feels that life no longer holds any meaning for him (sense or purpose ).

8) I have just seen the president .he said with a meaning look (suggestive).

9) A continuous beeping sound means that the machine is faulty (is a )

10) Patriotism means love or zealous devotion to one's country (denotes).

11) He has managed to grasp the meaning of the play (significance).

It is worth noting that the phrases in parentheses above are the approximate equi ’alent of different forms of the verb mean. A Semantic-Pragmatic Approach to Ambiguity 21

Lyons (1977: 207) is one of the linguists who is obsessed with the issue of meaning. He asserts that there are two main types of meaning: the denotative which means the semantic and componential analysis of a lexeme or a word. For instance, there is a relation between the word (man) and criterial properties attributed to that word such as (+human, +male, +adult). However.one word may have two antonymous meanings at the same time:

12) a - bachelor: a human male who has never married. b - bachelor: an animal male ... a young fur seal w'hen without a mate.

It is clear that the word bachelor in 12) a and b above have features of both (- animal and +animal) simultaneously. Connotation is the other type of meaning and it is opposed to . It is defined by Leech (1981: 12) as ’the communicative value an expression has by virtue of what it refers to over and above its purely conceptual content.’ In other words, it is the emotive component frequently associated with the word. The lexeme rose for instance is associated with ideas like red colour’ and ’love’. This association is really affected by factors such as culture, experience, period and the society in which we live. This is the reason why the connotative meaning is subjective, i. e. it differs from one per­ son to another which - accordingly - makes it too unstable and open-ended to constitute a major factor in ambiguity. To conclude with, denotation is an objective process whereas connotation is a subjective one. Both processes add richness to the significance of any work of art. It is pertinent now to give definitions for related topics such as lexical ambigu­ ity and type-token dichotomy.

Definition of lexical ambiguity This section will mainly cover two main points which are Lexical Ambiguity and type- token dichotomy. Lexical ambiguity underpins the notion of ’’ where lexicogra­ phers out for each word entry its sense or senses. This assumption raises a ’what empirical do we have that there were word senses before the appearance of dictionaries?’ Logically speaking, there are by no means any word senses before dictionar­ ies appear. It is important then to define the term lexical. Cruse ( 1986: 24) defines the term lexical saying that it covers two entities: lexeme and lexical item. As for lexical item, it means the smallest parts which satisfy the following two criteria: first, it must be at least one semantic constituent; second it must be at least one word. Thus, Cruse proceeds, the word black is a lexical item in the phrase black bird but in the compound noun blackbird it is not as it does not fulfill the above two criteria. These criteria admit lexical items expressions such as to kick the bucket and to bury the hatchet which - to Cruse - have a specific single meaning. However, Ruhl (1989) denies that A. A. Ibrahim idiomatic phrases have single meaning. He proves by the corpus he collected from newspa­ pers and literary works that idioms like hit the beach is context-bound as it may mean (to fish, to swim, to have a walk on the beach). Lexeme on the other hand is an item listed in the . A word like bank in example (1) above is regarded as two lexemes since it has two different meanings: a financial institution and side of river. Therefore, there are two lexical emits corresponding to these two different senses. Looking at any lexicon, one may find extra meanings for the word bank. The problem rises again when we deal with and homonymy. Definitions differentiating between these two terms are interre­ lated though they are not the same things. Homonyms are different words which have the same form and sound but different unrelated meanings e. g. ball (spherical object) and (so­ cial part/ for dancing) whereas polysemous words have different but related meanings for the same word e. g. mouth which means (opening of river) and (opening through which food is iaken). Therefore, the only distinguishing feature between both polysemy and ho­ monym} is relatedness or unrelatedness among different meanings of the same word. A note of reservation should be given here; a central or core meaning turns out to be a histori­ cal and not necessarily related to the present day language. Lyons (1977: 551) illustrates this idea by giving examples like port meaning harbour which is taken from pcrtus', there is a second meaning of the word port which is wine where it is taken from a city in Portugal called Oporto which has the same meaning as port (harbour). Another point which is worth mentioning is the type/token distinction. It is defined by Richards et al. (1985), stating that a type is a higher abstract semantic under which we can include many tokensphese tokens are regarded as individual members of the same type. For example, (hello, hi, good morning) are different tokens of the same type which is (greetin’). In other words, tokens are concrete realizations of type. Lyons (1977: 14) also states the between type and token: "Tokens are unique physical entities located at a particular place in space or time. They are identified as token; of the same type by virtue of their similarity with other unique physical entities and by virtue of their conformity to the type they instantiate." For instance, the phrase :

13) "'he cat sat on the mat contains six word tokens but five distinct word types (since the occurs twice). Peirce (1960: 423), who introduced these two terms, indicates that type is not a single thing ora single event. It does not exist. It only determines things that do exist. From the semantic point of view, a token is determined by the context in which it appears, and hence it can have different semantic loads depending on the situation in which it is used. This will lead us to distinguish between two kinds of tokens: copy-token and text-token where the A Semantic-Pragmatic Approach to Ambiguity 23 former designates the repeated printout of the same novel or the same poem whereas the latter means the frequent occurrences of the same words within the same text. The word our and report are two vivid examples of text-tokens which are tackled in Auden's poem. From the above definitions, it is pertinent to set a clear theoretical framework for the present study. This framework will harbour a welter of approaches proposed by eminent figures in both semantics and pragmatics.

III. T h e o r e t ic a l f r a m e w o r k

The present analysis will adopt Leech's (1980, 1981, 1983), Grice's (1975) and Sperber/ Wilson's (1986) theoretical frameworks of both semantics and pragmatics and how they help in disambiguating problematic words and phrases in Auden's poem. First a semantic- pragmatic approach to ambiguity will be dealt with. Ambiguity calls for a pragmatic method of explication. A pragmatic view of ambiguity serves three functions: - It encompasses a semantic characterization of the phenomenon. - It captures the cognitive or psychological of the phenomenon. - It identifies ambiguity as an aspect of . To understand the first function, we should acknowledge the important contribution of se­ mantics to the phenomenon. A clear distinction between semantics and pragmatics should be proposed first. Moms (1938: 60) is one of the earliest philosophers who makes a dis­ tinction between semantics and pragmatics. To him, pragmatics is "the relation of to interpreters" whereas semantics is "the relation of signs to the objects to which the signs are applicable". In a like manner, Levinson (1983) distinguishes between semantics and pragmatics stating that the former is the sentence meaning whereas the latter is the speaker meaning. Semantics is rule-governed, i. e. it deals with meaning as a and it explains the systematic relation between words and is thus able to predict the ambiguous forms of words in isolation. This is called system ambiguityj which occurs at the level of type rather than of token. Pragmatics on the other hand, treats meaning not at the level of the system but at the concrete level of use. It is relevant for studying actual token ambiguity, i. e. actual words uttered by interlocutors in a given context. Leech (1983) made another distinction between semantics and pragmatics saying that the former deals with sense (semantic dimension) whereas the latter deals with force (the pragmatically determined meaning which includes sense). As pragmatics involves a , it is pertinent to deal with a semantic approach to ambiguity before moving to a pragmatic one. For the former, we should deal with sense relations of lexical items whereas for the latter, attention is given to pragmatic factors such as the co-operative principle, and principle of . 24 A. A. Ibrahim

A Semantic Approach to Ambiguity

To look at ambiguity within a semantic framework, one should differentiate between con­ tradictories and contrariness of senses. The former indicates a strict binary words like (dead/alive) both of which excludes each other and the latter may involve a range of alter­ natives like : 14) a. The tea is hot. b. The tea is cold. where the two adjectives hot and cold are gradable and measureable in terms of degree. Other examples may indicate that the two meanings of the same word are distinct and dis­ parate:

15) He wore a light suit. where the underlined word light indicates both brightness and weight. The difference be­ tween senses which are distinct and disparate is a living example and a sufficient condition for ambiguity to occur. Semantic approach, then, is to look at TYPE whereas pragmatics, as indicated below, is to deal with TOKEN. Our next concern is to look at the term ambi­ guity wiihin a pragmatic framework.

A pragmatic approach to ambiguity This section will mainly tackle the theoretical framework proposed by Leech (1980). Other related points by Grice (1975) and Sperber/Wilson (1986) will be highlighted as well. All these linguists talk about pragmatic functions of certain words and how understanding these functions requires a lot of efforts on the reader's behalf. Words are tools which express entities. Zgusta (1971: 47) observes that these words: "do not have an abstract existence of their own as some unalterably defined units of a system, but they are used. The distinction is so very important that it is useful to discern even terminologically the meaning of a word as a part of the system ... and its signification, or actual significance when it occurs in a text." The above quotation implies that words have certain functions in a specific context. This context particularizes the made by this/these word(s). A working definition of the term pragmatics is proposed by Leech (1980: 2) It is : "the study of the relation between the abstract meaning or sense of linguisticexpressions. and the commu­ nicative force which they have for speakers and hearers in given utterance situations." Therefore, a question like (16):

(16) Have you got something to drink ? A Semantic-Pragmatic Approach to Ambiguity 25 is ambiguous between a request and an offer. The source of ambiguity is not due to lexical reasons, but due to pragmatic force. Utterance (16) contributes to different forces. When a reader of a given text could not find enough contextual clues, ambiguity occurs and when there is no face-to-face interaction, like all forms of written , the author's is hard to be detected by the reader. The main concern of the present study is to consider the two important issues of context and readers' interpretation. The interaction between these two gives rise to two prominent notions viz. and relevance both of which play a vital part in under­ standing a given text.

Implicature and co-opreative principle The term implicature means the implicit in an utterance which should be re­ covered to help interpreters better understand this utterance. Example) 16) above may mean

- I wish to offer you a drink or - 1 am thirsty and I need a drink.

The co-operation principle proposed by Grice (1975) is very effective here. Grice asserts that the use of language in communication is governed by an underlying principle of co-operation, called the co-perative principle. He expresses this principle in the following manner: "make your contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the ac­ cepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged." This principle of Grice - as far as the present study is concerned - is applicable to any communicative situation of interaction and is also relevant to . In other words, it is applicable to poetry where the reader can establish the significance of the poem and uses that to provide the general direction which leads to interpreting ambiguity or inferring that ambiguity is intended. The direction indicated by Grice in the above quotation performs two functions: a)it provides a general frame, which according to Grice, admits the tenabil- ity of the two or more senses of a word in the context, and b) it governs the meaningful interpretation of ambiguous structures in terms of their poetic value. The title of Auden's poem The Unknown Citizen is a good example where the framework is set from the begin­ ning when Auden likens this citizen to the unknown soldier. A complete analysis will be handled below. Under the co-operative principle,there are subsumed notions like Grice's four maxims: Manner, Quantity, Quality and Relevance. In the first one, which is Manner, Grice (1975: 46) formulates it in the words "be perspicuous", i. e. avoid ambiguity and convey the idea in the clearest way possible. Poetry - together with other literary genres - may violate this principle 26 A. A. Ibrahim drawing the reader's attention to the deliberate ambiguity in the text and, further, making him seek its relevance to the poem. The reader looks for what might be the author’s underlying intention. Semantically, there may be two or three explicit meanings which are applicable to the ambiguous item, but the implicit significance of the use of ambiguity has to be inferred by the reader through implicature. The flouting of any of the four maxims above will cause im- plicature to exist. As there are two or more layers of meaning like what is said and what is implied, the role of the reader is to use implicature which may allow the co-existence of more than one implied meaning. Such co-existence of multiple meanings, together with the reader's attempt to interpret them, is the heart of pragmatic analysis. Relevance is also dealt with by SperberAVilson (1986: 236), who look at the context which "consists of the set of used in interpreting an utterance ... (it) is a psychological construct, a subset of the hearer's assumptions about the world.” SperberAVilson focus on two factors: effect and effort which are related to context and reader. In other words, the context creates a certain effect whereas the reader exerts some efforts to understand and to disambiguate a given utterance. They assert that contributions to these assumptions which affect interpretations are information, and old and new infor­ mation interact to give contextual effects. The process of contextual effect is a dynamic one in which new information adds to strengthen old one, or changes it by providing contradic­ tory evidence. Effects are also measured by the usefulness new information may have for the reader's or for the author's purpose. Relevant information can also help to explain the factors of tenability and choice. The other factor handled by SperberAVilson is effort; the greater the effort is, the smaller the relevance will be. The reader should minimize his ef­ forts to reach the most relevant interpretation of an utterance. Ambiguity should be avoided by both speaker and hearer. The speaker should use a stimulus which would save the hearer the effort of accessing two possible meanings for a given utterance in a given context, then having to choose between them. The only criticism directed to SperberAVilson is the question how we - as readers - can guarantee that the first interpretation we could reach is the one the author intended to con­ vey. Their theoretical framework proves to be unclear especially when two senses of an utterance would be equally relevant as example (1) above where both semantic interpreta­ tions of the word bank are relevant. It is the role of pragmatic analysis, then, to decide which of the two meanings is intended by the speaker. For ambiguity to occur, there must be two factors when interpreting an utterance: ten- ability and choice. In other words, ambiguity occurs when two or more distinct meanings are tenable rendering choice between alternatives an uncertain one. For instance, when readers are not sure what the word citizen in the poem means or what are possible alterna- A Semantic-Pragmatic Approach to Ambiguity 27 tives this word has, ambiguity occurs. The word tenable means capable of being defended. Semantics and Pragmatics interact and give three distinct ways in which ambiguity can occur thereby showing that the choice among different interpretations is feasible: first, am­ biguity may occur in garden-path sentences where the reader tries to find more linguistic clues by backtracking, i. e. tracking the source of ambiguity back in the utterance. Milne (1983: 38) defines the term garden-path as sentences which have perfect syntactic struc­ tures, yet many readers attempt to analyse these sentences as some other sort of construc­ tion, i. e. sentences that lead the reader down the garden path which metaphorically means deceive him. Example (17) below can be read on different levels: (17) The bench was requested to stop drinking in the courtroom. where the word bench is both (-(-animate ) and (-animate) at the same time, and the phrase to stop drinking may be disambiguated by more clues given. The term garden-path is also defined by Trask ( 1993: 114) as a sentence which is so constructed as to mislead the hearer into assigning an incorrect structure during processing, and hence perhaps into regarding the sentence as ill-formed when an unremarkable well-formed interpretation is available : (18) The horse shot from the stable fell over. where the verb fell modifies either the horse which was shot or the shot itself. Second, the form of ambiguity occurs when we have an ambiguity with perfectly balanced disjuncts. This kind is proposed by Rimmon (1977). The two alternatives are so perfectly balanced that the act of selection oscillates between one and the other. A clear example of this kind of ambiguity is the word DOOM in Hopkins's "The Wreck o f the Dentchland" whose theme was about the sinking of a ship where many nuns drowned: Do, deal, lord it with living and dead ; Let him ride, her pride, in his triumph, dispatch and have done with his doom there.

In the above quotation, the word doom bears the double meaning of both judgement and destruction, and both of them are possible and semantically balanced. Third, it is the type which occurs when the two or more meanings are applicable but one meaning is more rele­ vant than others. Example is from the same poem by Hopkins when he calls upon sister which has an obvious meaning of a nun and other less obvious one which is "woman fel­ low member of a church":

Sister, a sister calling A master, her master and mine.

The third type above is the most common form of ambiguity because it is based on the principle of relevance. In other words, the reader chooses the most relevant intended mean­ 28 A. A. Ibrahim ing and regards other meanings as less favourable. From the above discussions,, one can properly define ambiguity as an item which is semantically capable of having two or more distinctly different meanings and these different meanings can be pragmatically in terpreted in a given context to choose the most relevant meaning of a specific utterance.

IV. M ethodology : The analysis will proceed from one stretch of text to another. The ambiguous or the prob­ lematic structures or words will be highlighted in the text. Then a full semantic-pragmatic analysis will be provided using Leech's (1980, 1981, 1983), Grice's (1975) and Sperber/ Wilson's (1986) theoretical frameworks. Type/token distinction or semantic versus prag­ matic approaches will be manipulated especially when dealing with the title The Unknown Citizen where it pragmatically means someone whose rights and individuality are violated by the Greater Community. Such an analysis will yield new looks at the poem. In other words, tie poem is by no means a simple one which deals with an ordinary citizen, but it becomes a multidimensional work which is applicable to all miserable human beings who sacrificed a lot for their community but they lived and died incognito. Some semantic fea­ tures of some nouns used in the poem will also be dealt with. For example, Auden uses features of (+human ) and (-human ) for the same noun such as the words Union and Press. Cther examples wil be mentioned in the analysis below with a special emphasis on ambigui:y and its aesthetic effect on the readers. V.

V. A nalysis and D isc u ssio n : A poem creates a world of its own. However,every poem also reflects aspects of a larger world from which it is derived. The reader's task is to look for the circumstances or the (contexti which surround the making of the poem. In some poems, the reference is Biblical whereas other times the reference is Judaeo-christian. Historical are also com­ mon. Seme poets in the present era develop a which is private and unrelated to an­ cient history like Auden's The Unknown Citizen which may indicate biographical detail, psychological analysis and specific about the conditions under which a poem is cre­ ated. When Auden for instance writes his poem, he must have had in his mind the image of the Unknown Soldier particularly during the second world war. Before tackling the poem, it is wise :o set forward the theme that an ordinary reader may grasp when setting the first glance cn the text. The poem deals with an ordinary man who causes no harm to anyone in his Greeter Community. All reports about him show that he is a good citizen who never protests against his superiors. He never breaks the law. Further, he is a family man who has five children and was never condemned of tax evasion. On the patriotic level, he follows A Semantic-Pragmatic Approach to Ambiguity 29 the group of his fellow sufferers during war and peace. In other words, in the time of war he goes to fight and vice versa. Auden concludes the poem by asking a question - pre­ sumably a rhetorical one - whether or not this citizen is happy or free. It is - as Auden in­ dicates - an "absurd" question because the answer is embedded within the question and is expected to be in the negative. To begin with, the poem is simple but not simplistic. It is a mixture of both satire and protest against the status quo. The title The Unknown Citizen is ambiguous since it talks theoretically about a harmless citizen who never breaks a law all his life. On the practical level. Auden means the intertextual hint of the Unknown Soldier who sacrifices a lot though not appreciated by his community. Thus, the title and the subtitle parallel the in­ scription on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. He lived and died incognito although his sacrifice was of undoubted importance. The poem could be read on different levels. First, the plain and simple one without any decoration or embellishment. This is due to the that it has been composed in plain English. However, on political level, it is - as Burgess (1983: 223) indicates - a for Auden's faith in left-wing ideas which opt for greater political changes. Therefore, the poem may be regarded as a murmur of protest against the ruling party which renders Citizens, who have been harmless, Unknown. The word citizen itself has several meanings: first it means a person who lives in a particular city who has the right for voting, and second it means someone who belongs to a certain country by birth or by being naturalized and expects protection from it; there is a great dif­ ference between the two meanings of the word citizen where the first meaning is used when uttered inside one's country which means one's duties as well as one's rights, whereas the second one is used when uttered outside one's country which has a different pragmatic force resulting from a different context; the second meaning may entail rights such as pro­ tection rather than duties. The following two utterances are from Longman dictionary of Contemporary English : (19) Every citizen must vote for the presidential elections.

(20) I am an American citizen.

In example (20) above, the speaker is located outside the American territories and claims his right for protection. Since Auden speaks of an ordinary citizen, who does things locally such as paying taxes and attending formal education in schools, he presumably means the meaning implied by (19) above. For instance, this citizen was kind, paid his debts and taxes, had all the modern house appliances like phonograph and radio and never violated the norms set by his Greater Community. Quoting Kaplan/Kris (1948) above, one can safely say that the word citizen carries an integrative ambiguity where manifold meanings 30 A. A. Ibrahim support each other and actually add strength to the poem in question. In Lyons' terms, the word citizen has denotative feature (+) and (-) male, (+) and (-) young, (+) and (-) rich and finally (+) and (-) national resident unless Auden wants to refer to a senior citizen which is another word for pensioner. There are also some connotative features for the word citizen like equality, unity among members of the same society and the non existence of ethnic disputes. Auden possibly defies the Royal Family by mentioning the word citizen and not the word subject which is used when the state is ruled by a king or a queen. Mackey (1965) - together with other linguists - tackles the type/token method of ana­ lyzing the meaning of an utterance. He that TYPE is the umbrella word under which we can include many tokens. The text may contain repeated or recurrent tokens which are called text-tokens’. In other words, the same lexeme is repeated several times within the same text, and each time it has a different pragmatic force. The word (report) for instance has been mentioned four times in the poem. A close look at each time it is used will yield different interpretations of it:

(21 ) And all the reports on his conduct agree That in the modern sense ... he was a saint.

(22) For his Union reports that he paid his due. (23) Our report on his Union shows it was sound. (24) And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education.

The dictionary meaning of the word report is to give people information about something that you have heard, seen or done. Other meanings are also mentioned such as: something has been stated and you do not know whether it is true or not. In other words, any report is subject to falsification and refuting. Auden could have mentioned something like we be­ lieve he was a saint. However, he satirizes governmental methods of collecting information about different citizens. Lexically speaking, the word report as a noun means a written or a spoken account of an event especially one that is published or broadcast and this account is written by a group of people - probably officials - who examine a particular problem. It is wise to observe Milne's (1983) garden-path ambiguity in (22) and (24) above; Auden drives us - as readers - into the garden-path by making the word report as r.oun and verb at the same time. In other words, reports in(22) can be a verb of the subject Union,or it could be a plural noun modifying the word Union. However, by backtracking analysis, the ambiguity of the word report is resolved. In a like manner, the word report in 24) acts as a noun modifying the preceding noun teachers, or it could be a verb of the subject noun phrase our teachers. On the semantic level, the word report is said to be a true account of somebody, but on the pragmatic one, which Auden intends, it means useless facts about A Semantic-Pragmatic Approach to Ambiguity 31

someone whom the society regards as next to nought or zero. The poem's implicature shows that Auden intends the second meaning viz the pragmatic one. In Leech's terminol­ ogy. the word report has a communicative force which provides a framework or a thematic value which renders a specific interpretation tenable or défendable ; then in a second stage, this framework governs a meaningful interpretation and gives it a poetic value. As indi­ cated earlier, tenability and choice among different possible meanings are the two bases of pragmatic analysis. If different meanings of the same text are available, choice among them will be very difficult. This is possibly what Auden wants when he writes his poem, and this is the most common type of ambiguity where two or three meanings are applicable but one meaning is more relevant than all other meanings. Another pragmatic force of the word report is the intelligence reports though the word intelligence was not mentioned in the poem but during the second world war, when the poem was written, the secret information and reports are collected about both foreign countries and locals altogether. Therefore, re­ ports of teachers, Union and even the workers are merely the intelligence reports which collect the minutest details of The Unknown Citizen. These minutest details are represented by the number of his children,his single visit to the hospital and the number of his home appliances like (phonograph, radio, and frigidaire). Another example which is worth mentioning is the word ’saint’ in (25). By looking closely at this word, we - as readers - feel that Auden uses it in a certain way. Auden does not mean a person who is recognized by the church as holy or religious because there is no one single implication that this citizen goes to church or performs any congregational ac­ tivities. On the contrary.he was sometimes invited to have a drink. Auden wants to convey the idea that this citizen is kind and patient:

(25) ... the reports ... agree that, in the modern sense of an old fashioned word, he was a saint.

Line (25) above rings a bell in the reader's mind with the idiomatic phrase: his behaviour would try the patience of a saint, which is applicable to the citizen's behaviour. Applying Lyons' terminology, the denotative meaning of the word 'saint' is a holy person recognized by the church to be one of the most respectable figures because of the way he lived and died .whereas on the connotative or emotive level, the word means a kind and patient man who struggles up life problems not necessarily involving religious activities. Diagram ( 1 ) below explains the type-token dichotomy of both semantic and pragmatic interpretations conveyed by the word "saint" 32 A. A. Ibrahim

Semantically,« holy person, firstly accessed by readers(type)

Pragmatically, someone who is patient (token),preferably desired by Auden.

Diagram (1)

Auden's use of allows unbridled freedom in interpreting them especially the first person plural we and our :

(26) Our report on his Union shows it was sound.

(27) And our Social Psychology Workers found That he was popular and liked a drink .

(28) He was married and added five children to the population, Which our Eugenist says was the right number ...

In examples (26, 27, 28) above, Auden’s use of pronouns is vague and lacks clarity. Is the poet speaking of himself and the readers? or is he talking of the greater community in line (5) in the appendix - ... in everything he did he served his Greater Community... where he tied himself with the whole society in which both the poet and the unknown citi­ zen live. Auden is possibly talking of his political Left-Wing party which he propagates during the second world war, and this could be the most favourable interpretation because the whole poem is a propaganda for left-wing political attitudes which have been opting for revolutionary changes. There is a weak possibility that Auden couples himself with the unknown citizen when he mentions Our Social Psychology Workers. They - meaning the poet and the unknown citizen - may be colleagues or classmates, but there is a world of difference between them. The former is a left-wing campaigner and revolutionär)' by nature whereas the latter 'was not a scab or odd 1 :

(29) Yet he wasn't a scab or odd in his views.

The word scab in (29) above literally means a worker w'ho refuses to join a strike or takes the place of somebody on a strike. In other words, the citizen follows the group and is never a strike breaker. A Semantic-Pragmatic Approach to Ambiguity 33

To use Grice's terms, the use of pronouns (we) and (our) is not perspicuous. Auden deos not give us - as readers - the right or the required contribution at the stage in which these lines are used. He gives us a framework which offers several tenable interpretations and with some ef­ forts on behalf of us, we could manage to choose one of these possibilities. Under the word co­ operative principles come the maxims of Grice which help the readers to minimize their efforts to reach the required or the desired target in communication process. However, poetry inten­ tionally violates these principles of Grice, and violating these maxims causes implicature of the word (our) to occur. All meanings of the pronouns (we) and (our) are tenable or in other words défendable but there is only one favourable interpretation which Auden wants. Actually, Auden wants to convey that he does not belong to these representative of these institutions such as 'teachers, the Social Psychology Workers, and even The Eugenist (a specialist in the study of future human evolution). In other words,(our) indicates that Auden does not want to be owned by these representatives although the literal meaning of the pronoun (our) conveys the opposite. In everyday situation, an angry employee may hate his employer saying:

(30) Our boss is nasty

where the use of the pronoun our in (30) does not indicate that the employee is happy to belong to his institution. The occurrence of two incompatible features in the same lexeme is a frequent phenomenon in the poem. The word Press in: (31) The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day carries the feature of both (-animate) and (-(-animate) as it means either the newspapers and magazines or journalists and photographers. The Press main interest in such an unknown citizen may cast doubts on its reliability. Further, the use of the copula (are) is an indicator that the people who work in this institution represent different entities and have conflicting , which is another hidden attack against the status quo. Here, Auden makes use of Kaplan/Kris type of ambiguity which is mentioned above and that is the additive type of am­ biguity. In this type both meanings of the word Press are included one in the other. Although the word (convinced) in (31 ) finalizes the dispute around whether Press is (+) or (-) animate. This, in fact, is not the only occurrence of opposite features of the same lexeme in the poem; other examples are 'Union1 which could mean a committee of people (+animate) or the syndi­ cate itself (-animate), and Eugenist which is either a magazine dealing with medical subjects (-animate) or a specialized doctor studying Eugenics (+ animate). Again, the "additive" type adds richness to the poem.though it requires a lot of efforts on behalf of the readers. It is important to observe that interrogative structures in English can have different functions as indicated in the pedagogical implications below. The question at the end of the poem, then, could be interpreted differently: 34 A. A. Ibrahim

(32) Was he free? was he happy? the question is absurd. On the semantic level, (32) above is a yes-no question checking whether the unknown citi­ zen was happy or not (TYPE) whereas on the pragmatic level, it means that Auden invites the reader to answer the question negatively. In other words, the unknown citizen conforms with the society and never breaks the law', but the question remains: is he happy to serve a community which deals with him as a stereotypical image of a citizen who never feels his individuality (TOKEN). As readers it is wise to observe how the unknown citizen lives in a dilemma between modern sense and an old-fashioned word: (33) ... in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint.

Semantically speaking, Auden's use of gradable ajectives is recurrent. The gradable adjec­ tives mean the ones which can be measured by degrees. In other words, those like right and sound in verses report is sound and the right number of a parent. These adjectives are grad­ able along a continuum where it is very difficult to decide at what point along the contin­ uum the adjective sound or right is located. To state it differently, what may seem right or sound to a person may not be likewise for others. In a like manner, when saying the tea is hot, many people will inquire, how hot is it?. Pragmatically, Auden uses the adjective to mean their oppositeness. We, as readers, can understand that all these reports that are written about this citizen are simply false or at least falsifiable because they show that he is happy and free while in fact he was desperate and controlled by tyrannical organization writing refutable reports. To conclude with, it is pertinent to say that Auden is one of those poets who have been struggling hard to change the status quo using the power of words. His poem is simple but not simplistic since it contains many examples of ambiguous words and further, they in­ clude pragmatic force of certain such as the title the unknown citizen, the reports and the press. For Auden's poem to be ambiguous is regarded as a positive element and not to be considered obscure or doubtful. VI.

VI. Pedagogical Implications : Under the influence of studies in Pragmatics, teachers' concern has been drawm not only to the correctness of language but also to the appropriate use of it. Traditionally, dictionaries and are concerned with what words mean. On the other hand. Pragmatics focus on how words are used and what speakers mean. There would be a considerable difference between sentence meaning and speaker's meaning, and it is the job of the teachers of Eng­ lish language to create several contexts in which the same words are used and the students A Semantic-Pragmatic Approach to Ambiguity 35 will be asked to interpret different pragmatic forces created by the change of the contextual clues; for instance, a person who says: (34) Is that your car? may mean something like:

- your car is blocking my gateway, move it.

- what a fantastic car, I didn't know you were so rich.

- what a dreadful car. I wouldn't be seen dead in it.

Thus, the very same words in (34) are used to complain, to express admiration or to convey disapproval. This is the reason why it is the responsibility of the teacher to select a suitable dictionary which includes some hints about language use and not only sentence meanings. Even the tone or the body language can determine the speaker meaning. However, when we - as educators - come to a situation of native speakers / non-native speakers interaction, serious misunderstanding can occur. For example, a British teacher may ask a non-native speaker of English : (35) James, would you like to read this passage?

The question in (35) above is not about James's wishes but the teacher is actually telling him to read. James may easily misunderstand the teacher's intention and reply no thank you which would be an inappropriate joke. Another example is the word please which is a conventional marker of politeness in different situations, and it is also regarded as a magic word in English: (36) Will you please sit down? The magic word here is pragmatically fit with a naughty child not an important visitor to one's office. Other examples could be:

(37) Mind your head please where the word please is pragmatically inappropriate because the sentence (37) is warning not a request. When learners of English make grammatical errors, people, or better say their teachers may make allowances for them, but when they make pragmatic errors, people may think they are unfriendly or even aggressive. This is the reason why lexicographers have a great responsibility in offering foreign learners of English a considerable load of pragmatic information and further incorporate this load into their dictionaries. It is difficult because lexicographers can not formulate rules of pragmatics in the same way that rules are formulated in Grammar. Many pragmatic factors should be guarded against. For example, 36 A. A. Ibrahim age, sex, profession, formality level, gender and socio-economic status are all determining the way learners speak. This will lead us - as teachers of English to speakers of other lan­ guages - to teach them how to be 'bi-cultural', i. e. well grounded in both native and target cultures, and bilingual, i. e. a speaker of two . The teacher must also create dif­ ferent contexts where different language functions like apology, invitation, and criticism & praise are introduced. It can be in the form of a technique especially for freshmen students: - A teacher wants to criticize his student indirectly.how can he avoid strong words? The students should choose one of the three answers below: • your essay is dreadful . • I am afraid your essay was not quite up to the standard. • You are a failure.

Such problem-solving tasks can be applied to different language functions such as invita­ tion (accepting & declining), offer, disapproval etc. Another pragmatic exercise which can be given to freshmen students is a list of vocabu­ lary where each student will be asked to provide the denotative and connotative meanings of these vocabulary : ROSE - HORSE Then, students' answers could be like :

Word Denotative connotative Horse Four-legged animal Power/strength Rose A decorative plant Love and romance

Larger sizes of more intricate vocabulary can be selected to suit higher or advanced levels. The purpose of such an exercise is to help students understand the pragmatic force offered by certain physical entities in poetry and analyzing these symbols on both semantic and pragmatic levels. This analysis will help them to better evaluate a given literary work. To conclude with, the present study is an invitation for lexicographers to include as many pragmatic loads of linguistic structures into their dictionaries which help learners of Eng­ lish to avoid serious and horrible pragmatic errors. The next section is the appendix con­ taining the poem "The Unknown Citizen". A Semantic-Pragmatic Approach to Ambiguity 37

A ppendix

The Unknown Citizen (To JS/07/M/378 This Marble Monument Is Erected by the State)1 He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be One against whom there was no official complaint. And all the reports on his conduct agree That in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint. For in everything he did he served the Greater Community. 5 Except for the War till the day he retired He worked in a factory and never got fired, But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc. Yet he wasn't a scab or odd in his views, For his Union reports that he paid his dues, 10 (Our report on his union shows it was sound) And our Social Psychology Workers found That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink. The Press are convinced that he bought a paper everyday And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way. 15 Policies taken out in his prove that he was fully insured, And his health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured. Both Producers and High-Grade Fiving declare He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Installment Plan And had everything necessary to the Modern Man, 20 A phonograph, a radio, a car and a Frigidaire. Our researchers into Public are content That he held the proper opinion for the time of year; When there was peace,he was for peace; when there was war, he went. He was married and added five children to the population. 25 Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation, And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education. Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd: Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.

1940

1 The title and the subtitle parallel the inscription on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 38 A. A. Ibrahim

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Ruhl. C. 1989 On Monosemy: A Study in Linguistic Semantics, Albany. Schaar. C. 1965 Old Texts and Ambiguity, English Studies 46: 157-165. Small. S.L./Cottrell. G.W./Tannenhaus, M.K. (eds) 1988 Lexical Ambiguity Resolution: Perspectives from Psycolinguistics, Neu ropsychology, and , San Mateo (Ca.). Sperber. D./Wilson, D. 1986 Relevance,Communication and Cognition, Oxford. Trask. R.L. 1993 A Dictionary o f Grammatical Words in Linguistics, London. Wierzbicka. A. 1996 Semantics: Primes and Universais. Oxford. Zgusta, L. 1971 Manual o f , The Hague.

Ahmed Ali Ibrahim Ain Shams University, Cairo [email protected]