Reviewed by Anish Koshy, The EFL University

This second volume of a two-volume set is divided into four parts and consists of Parts 3–6. Part 3 provides a detailed inventory of the structural possibilities with closed-class items. Parts 4 and 5 take up syntactic factors like scope, modification, and ellipsis, which contribute to ambiguity, and Part 6 concludes the discussion with formulas that can be exploited for such uses as jokes, advertisements, business logos, greeting cards, bumper stickers, and headline captions.

Ch. 10 deals with the role of pronouns in creating structural ambiguity. Ambiguity results when pronouns refer to different referents, are interpreted in idiomatic expressions, assume the same forms in different grammatical roles, and involve varying degrees of inclusivity in plural forms. Ch. 11 explores the role of prepositions in creating ambiguity. Prepositions can have multiple meanings, which may be metaphorically and idiomatically extended, may be homophonous with other grammatical elements, or may be confused with particles in phrasal verbs. Ch. 12 explores coordinating and subordinating conjunctions. Conjunctions cause ambiguity by way of their multiple interpretations, their conjunctive vs. disjunctive uses, the omission of information in coordinated structures, and their variable scope and modification potential.

Ch. 13, the first in Part 4, deals with nominal modifiers, which include other nouns, adjectives, determiners, post- and pre-determiners, and restrictors. Their optionality, ability to hide distinctions between different subtypes of nouns, and membership in and ability to modify members of multiple word-classes can all lead to ambiguity. Ch. 14 deals with post-modification ambiguity in nouns and verbs found in prepositional phrases and clauses, apart from ‘dangling’, ‘squinting’, and ‘sentential’ modifiers. Negation leads to focus and scope ambiguity.

Ch. 15, the first in Part 5, discusses structural ambiguity due to ellipsis, even when one is only assumed. Elliptical structures involving auxiliaries, gapping, imperative verbs, infinitive clauses, and verbless clauses are discussed. Ch. 16 explores ambiguity involving questions and reported speech. Questions can be elliptical, and involve movement, while reported speech inverts questions into statements and changes tense and deictic references. Ch. 17, the last in Part 5, discusses the potential of idioms, exclamations, and multiword verbs (phrasal verbs) in creating ambiguity, largely due to the possibility of their being literally interpreted apart from their fixed meanings.

Ch. 18, constituting Part 6, forms the conclusion of the two volumes. It provides illustrative formulas to help consciously construct structural ambiguity in order to facilitate word-play. The book ends with useful appendices, including a list of consonant and vowel substitutions, formulas for words with competing word classes, formulas for multiword verbs, formulas for participles, formulas for compound nouns, and concord problems.

This book provides useful insights into the conscious manipulation of language for multiple purposes. Though reducing human creativity to a list of formulas might appear too simplistic, this book can be used as a starting point. Linguists will find the examples and discussions useful, though they may not approve of the author’s propensity to use the same examples as instances of structural ambiguity of different word-classes.