ENGLISH FOR BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION: A SYNTACTIC AMBIGUITY ANALYSIS OF A STUDY PROGRAM’S NAME

Yosafat Barona Valentino(1*),

(1) Politeknik Tonggak Equator Pontianak, Indonesia
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract


This qualitative descriptive research aims to explore the different meanings that can be derived from the name of a study program, i.e., English for Business and Professional Communication, using a syntactic approach. The syntactic approach employed was the X-bar theory rules to analyze the possibilities of the structural meaning. The results show three possible structural interpretations of the program’s name: (i) an English language program with two specific objectives, namely business and professional communication, (ii) a program with two specializations, namely English language for business purposes and professional communication, and (iii) an English language program with a specific purpose in the field of communication, which is divided into two sub-fields, namely business communication and professional communication. Thus, the English for Business and Professional Communication study program name is an ambiguous construction with three possible structural readings.


Keywords


ambiguity; English for Business and Professional Communication; structural ambiguity; syntactic ambiguity; x-bar theory

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/ijhs.v7i1.6262

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International Journal of Humanity Studies (IJHS) is a scientific journal in English published twice a year, namely in September and March, by Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.