An analysis of lexically ambiguous words in Hausa

Abstract

This paper investigates and analyzes Hausa words that are lexically ambiguous. In linguistics, ambiguity refers to the phenomenon in which a single word, phrase, clause, or sentence has more than one possible meaning or interpretation. The focus here is on lexical (word-level) ambiguities in Hausa. The study demonstrates that Hausa is particularly rich in such ambiguities, making the language both fascinating and challenging—especially for non-native speakers and learners. The paper is purely descriptive in nature and situated within the field of formal linguistics. Specifically, it examines lexical ambiguity in Hausa through the lens of lexical semantics and describes it from a linguistic perspective. Findings reveal that many Hausa words are open to multiple interpretations, which significantly affects their meaning when considered in isolation rather than in sentences. The study further shows that in some cases, ambiguous words can be disambiguated contextually or pragmatically, depending on the context in which they appear or the situation in which they are used.