ENGLISH FOR BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION: A SYNTACTIC AMBIGUITY ANALYSIS OF A STUDY PROGRAM’S NAME

Abstract

This qualitative descriptive research aims to explore the different meanings that can be derived from the name of a study program, i.e., English for Business and Professional Communication, using a syntactic approach. The syntactic approach employed was the X-bar theory rules to analyze the possibilities of the structural meaning. The results show three possible structural interpretations of the program’s name: (i) an English language program with two specific objectives, namely business and professional communication, (ii) a program with two specializations, namely English language for business purposes and professional communication, and (iii) an English language program with a specific purpose in the field of communication, which is divided into two sub-fields, namely business communication and professional communication. Thus, the English for Business and Professional Communication study program name is an ambiguous construction with three possible structural readings.