Abstract:

This paper first defines the relevant notion 'syntactic ambiguity' in the context of the Academic Writing in German, emphasizing the importance of its disambiguation primarily through context, but also through other linguistic and extralinguistic entities. Notable examples in German/English/Macedonian are cited to demonstrate that if expressions with syntactic ambiguity remain unresolved, they can cause misunderstandings. The problematic nature of these phenomena is particularly evident in written texts. Therefore, when writing an academic text, it is crucial to be mindful of the high probability for misinterpretation of ambiguous expressions. This paper presents ideas on how to disambiguate syntactically ambiguous expressions while maintaining the coherence of the text. Primarily, we consider the use of lexical means such as repetition, implication or inclusion, synonymy, paradigms, and antonymy, as well as some grammatical but also some extralinguistic means. By conducting some experiments and questionnaires among students at the study program for Translation and Interpretation, at the Chair of German language and Literature we aim to find out if and in what extend the students are aware when they use syntactic ambiguity during the academic writing as well as of the importance of its disambiguation. On the success of the disambiguation depends on the appropriate understanding of the written text.

Keywords:

Repetition, implication or inclusion, synonymy, paradigms, and antonymy.