ntext were different; for example "Lions turn on sparse crowd" this interpretation would be much more likely. Plausibility, closely linked with context in this case, also leads us towards the excitement interpretation. It is much more realistic to think of athletes exciting the crowd than attacking them. Therefore, these factors help us to determine in which way a lexical ambiguity should be interpreted.“Red Tape Holds Up Bridge” The ambiguity in this example is whether “holds up” is meant as physically supporting the bridge or as hindering the progress of building the bridge. The interpretation in which the bridge is physically held up is supported by taking the frequency factor into consideration. We more often hear of things being held up in the physical sense, such holding up a sign, or holding our heads up. Therefore, it is understandable that one may arrive at the physical interpretation. The other interpretation, in which the progress of the bridge is being “held up” is supported by three closely related factors: context, syntax, and plausibility. The context and syntax are important for the interpretation because “holds up” refers to a bridge. If the statement had instead been "Red Tape Holds Up Decorations" then those two factors would support the physical interpretation. However, the word bridge leads us to consider our interpretation in terms of plausibility.Plausibility also supports the second interpretation, in which the progress of the bridge is being “held up”. This is much more reasonable an interpretation. Even a child, unfamiliar with the metaphor of red tape, would understand that a bridge could not be supported by tape. Therefore this allows us to correctly interpret the ambiguous sentence. "Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half" This example is ambiguous because it is unclear whether the dropouts are being physically cut in half or if the rate of dr...
