<|im_start|>system
You are a helpful AI assistant.<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>user
What does "they" refer to in each of the following two sentences: 
a) "The authorities have denied authorization to the demonstrators because they feared violence."
b) "The authorities have denied authorization to the demonstrators because they appeared belligerent."<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>assistant
Syntactically speaking, in both sentences "they" could refer back to either the authorities or the demonstrators as the antecedent. However, based on the semantics of the sentence, there is a more likely antecedent in either case. In sentence (a), "they" likely refers to the authorities, because it makes little sense for the demonstrators to fear violence and for that to cause the authorities to deny authorization. In sentence (b), on the other hand, "they" probably refers to the demonstrators, because apparently belligerent demonstrators are a typical reason to deny authorization, and apparently belligerent authorities are not.<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>user
Are you sure in sentence a) that the authorities feared violence? Is it possible that the authorities may not fear violence and they refers to another group not mentioned?<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>assistant
Although it is possible that `they` refers to another group not mentioned, the sentence does have a comma, indicating that all the information has already been provided. Hence, it is most likely that `they` in this sentence refers to `the authorities`.<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>user
What linguistic problem does this demonstrate?<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>assistant
This demonstrates the issue of Syntactic Ambiguity. Syntactic ambiguity occurs when there are two possible meanings for a given phrase. The statement "The authorities have denied authorization to the demonstrators because they feared violence." is an example of this because it could have one of the following two meanings:

1) The authorities are denying authorization to the demonstrators because the authorities fear violence from the demonstrators
2) The authorities are denying authorization to the demonstrators because the demonstrators fear violence

While it is rather simple to determine the intended meaning for this sentence, other cases may be less clear. In those cases, Syntactic Ambiguity can lead to an issue where the recipient of the message is missing the necessary external context to determine the original intent, which can lead to miscommunication.<|im_end|>