Lexical Ambiguity and Verbal Humor in Some English Jokes and Riddles

Linguistic ambiguity is a pervasive phenomenon in language. It occurs when word, phrase, or sentence has more than one meaning. Although it often considered problem since may cause confusion and hinder the precise understanding of language, its own value. enriches language produces positive effects such as creating irony adding sort humor. This study focuses on how lexical ambiguity, type linguistic can be source verbal The data are 20 examples jokes riddles that taken from three internet sites; each example relies ambiguity. analyzed to identify words contain selected riddles, classify them into forms i.e. homonymy with sub-types (absolute homonymy, homophone homograph) polysemy showing frequency form, illustrate create humor light Incongruity Theory results analysis show according Also, reveals ambiguous involved two most frequently used form whereas least. Keywords: Lexical Verbal Humor, Absolute Homonymy, Homophone, Polysemy