Punning ( tawriya ) in Arabic: A Semantic Study

This study attempts to present a complete picture, as much as possible, of pun in Arabic as a rhetorical device that stands as a bridge between rhetoric and linguistics. As no independent work has been done in Arabic that deals with punning as a semantic issue the study addresses itself to bridge this gap by investigating the linguistic aspects of this hybrid phenomenon. It aims to provide a semantic account for pun or, the so called ‘tawriya’ in Arabic that uncovers the nature of words being involved in. It also proposes a classificatory system for categorizing puns semantically into the following types: Polysemous, naming, homonymous, homophonous and idiomatic.