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<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>The NPs of the form 'the Adjective Noun1 and Noun2' have two readings (coordination ambiguity):</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>1. [the Adjective [Noun1 and Noun2]]; i.e., Adjective has wide-scope</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>2. [the [Adjective Noun1] and Noun2]; i.e., Adjective has narrow-scope</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I wonder how frequently this type of ambiguity really occur in the BNC (British National Corpus). Using Kilgarrif'fs Sketch Engine, I found ca. 12500 instances (examples) of this type. What kind of statistics can I make about this figure (12500)? Loosely speaking, I can say that there are too many instances of coordination ambiguity in the BNC, but that sounds a bit over-statement. Isn't it?</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Any suggestions.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Regards</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV>Imtiaz H. Khan</DIV>
<DIV>PhD Research Student</DIV>
<DIV>Computing Science Department</DIV>
<DIV>University of Aberdeen</DIV>
<DIV><A href="https://mail.abdn.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.csd.abdn.ac.uk/~ikhan/" target=_blank>http://www.csd.abdn.ac.uk/~ikhan/</A></DIV></DIV><p></p><p style="font-size: 10pt ; color:#772244 ; font-family:Arial, sans-serif">The University of Aberdeen is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013683.</BODY></HTML>