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
(*) 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.

 

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