The sentence 'Visiting friends can be a nuisance' is often used to test which language ability?

• A. Recognize syntactic ambiguity
• B. Interpret metaphoric language
• C. Distinguish homophones by means of syntactic cues
• D. Recognize a semantically anomalous sentence

Answer: (A)

Recognizing syntactic ambiguity is being tested. In the sentence, the phrase “Visiting friends” can be parsed in two ways: it can mean the act of visiting friends (where the activity is the subject), or it can mean friends who are visiting (where a participle describes the noun). Both readings are grammatically plausible, so the surface sentence supports more than one interpretation. This highlights the ability to identify when structure, not just word meaning, leads to different understandings. It’s not about metaphor, homophones, or a semantic oddity—the meaning stays plausible in both parses, but the interpretation shifts with the syntax.