syntactic ambiguity

Syntactic ambiguity occurs when a sentence can be interpreted in more than one way because of its structure or grammar. For example, "I saw the man with the telescope" could mean either that I used a telescope to see the man or that the man has a telescope. The unclear arrangement of words creates multiple meanings. This ambiguity often requires additional context or clarification to understand the intended message, and it highlights how sentence construction can influence how information is received and interpreted.