International Journal of Language & Linguistics

Homonyms in Jordanian and Kuwaiti Arabic: A Contrastive Semantic Study
Duaa Hajjaj, Ahlam Saleh Al-Enezi

Abstract
Homonyms can present ambiguities at both the lexical and syntactic levels that can cause misunderstandings and serious communication problems among speakers in any language. The present study describes some cases of homonymy in Jordanian and Kuwaiti Arabic and provides a contrastive semantic study between homonyms in these two Arabic dialects. The results show some major similarities and differences between the two dialects’ homonyms, while the analysis attempts to disambiguate the meanings that arise from such homonyms by relating each homonym to its social physical context or the original object that its lexeme refers to.

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