IGBOSCHOLARS INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF IGBO SCHOLARS FORUM, NIGERIA

The research examines dialectal ambiguity in Ukwa-Ngwa lect of the Igbo language. Specifically, the study explores the causes of ambiguity, the types of ambiguity with the interpretations of ambiguous forms and ways in which ambiguous structures can be disambiguated in Ukwa-Ngwa lect of the Igbo language. The data for this study were gathered through personal observations and informal interviews as one of the researchers has lived there for eight years, observing the ways language is used in the area. The study adopts descriptive method in analysing the data. Finding shows that phonological, lexical and syntactic ambiguities occur in the Ukwa-Ngwa lect. It is also seen that the reasons for ambiguity in Ukwa-Ngwa lect include the existence of homonyms and polysemy in the lect. The study also shows that contextualisation and background knowledge among others are ways of disambiguating ambiguous structures in the lect under study. The study therefore recommends further research on other types and causes of ambiguity in Ukwa-Ngwa lect of the Igbo language as this present study could not exhaust all. Again, there is the need to study ambiguity in other lects of the Igbo language to see the extent of their relatedness in that aspect of lexical semantics.

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