In English alveolar stops are made with the tip of the tongue, but alveolar
fricatives – the /s/ in /sip/ sip, and the /z/ in /zup/ zoo– are made with the
part of the tongue which is just behind the tip, the blade.
see also laminal,place of articulation,manner of articulationalveolar ridge n
also alveolum
see place of articulation
ambi-bilingualism n
the ability to function equally well in two or more languages across a wide
range of domains.
ambiguous adjambiguity n
a word, phrase, or sentence which has more than one meaning is said to be
ambiguous.
An example of grammatical ambiguityis the sentence:
The lamb is too hot to eat.
which can mean either:
a the lamb is so hot that it cannot eat anything
or:
b the cooked lamb is too hot for someone to eat it
There are several types of lexical ambiguity:
a a word can have several meanings, e.g. face meaning “human face”,
“face of a clock”, “cliff face” (see also polysemy)
b two or more words can sound the same but have different meanings,
e.g. bank in to put money in a bank, the bank of a river (see also
homonyms^3 )
Usually, additional information either from the speaker or writer or from
the situation indicates which meaning is intended.
Ambiguity is used extensively in creative writing, especially in poetry.
see also disambiguation
Ameslan n
an acronym for American Sign Language
see sign language
amygdala n
a part of the brain believed to be important in directing attention and
attaching emotional value to stimuli.
analogy n
also overgeneralization
alveolar ridge