Abstract:
Ambiguity is a crucial problem that translators often encounter when translate
documents from Source language (SL) to Target language (TL). Each language is
comprised of system of linguistic elements (phonology, morphology, syntax and
semantics) which arranged to a proper sequence in a way that a clear meaning is
derived by the users. However, due to some improper arrangements of these
linguistic elements, perhaps the message intended to be delivered can be
misinterpreted in several ways. In the context of structural ambiguity, Tuggy (1993)
defines it as a “result of two or more syntactic structures that can be attributed to one
string of word or sentence.” This research aimed to assess the influence of structural
ambiguity in technical translation with special reference to administrative documents
in Sri Lanka. The study was conducted in line with qualitative approaches observing
English version of administrative documents including the gazettes, circulars, and
amendments. The results indicated that the ambiguity was associated by 2% out of
all the selected text, and 80% of which has appeared as a result of modification while
the rest has come in the form of co-ordination.
