Process and result of clarifying lexical or structural ambiguity (or vagueness) of linguistic expressions by the linguistic or extralinguistic context. (a) Linguistic disambiguation on the lexical level (polysemy, homonymy) is carried out as a rule by excluding semantically incompatible lexeme combinations: for example, the ambiguity of The chicken is ready to eat can be cleared up by following it with so please serve it or so please feed it, thus disambiguating chicken1 (=meat) from chicken2 (=live animal).
(b) Disambiguation of structural ambiguity is carried out by explicit reformulation of the underlying deep structure. Thus, the two readings of the sentence The investigation of the politician was applauded can be disambiguated by the paraphrases P1That the politician was being investigated was applauded or P2That the politician undertook the investigation was applauded. Disambiguation through extralinguistic context depends on the particular situation, on prior knowledge, attitudes, expectations of the speaker/hearer as well as on non-verbal cues (gesture (body language), mimicry). Disambiguated formal languages are often used to describe meaning.
