How are speakers’ linguistic choices affected by ambiguity?

Speakers produce utterances to accomplish goals. For example, a speaker might produce an utterance to assert a belief, make a request, or direct an action (Clark, 1996; Levelt, 1989; Searle, 1969). For speakers to accomplish these goals with their productions, they must succeed in transmitting information from their own minds to the minds of their addresseesaddressees cannot understand speakers’ beliefs, consider their requests, or obey their directions unless they understand the information that speakers are trying to get across in the first place. Therefore, anything that interferes with this process of information transmission will hinder speakers’ attempts to carry out the goal-directed behaviour that is producing linguistic expressions.