Arabic is considered to be a very difficult language to learn by native speakers of other languages. In fact, the United States government lists Arabic among the most difficult for Americans to learn. The complexity of the Arabic language is caused by a number of factors. One of the most challenging of these is the existence of polysemy. Polysemy--a term comprised of the Greek roots "poly" which means many and "sema" which can be translated as signs or words--refers to the coexistence of several disparate meanings for a word. There is a significant amount of words in Arabic that, while spelled and pronounced identically, differ in meaning based on the context. In general, polysemy presents a communicative obstacle while, specifically, it can be an impediment to translation. In order to facilitate and enhance the progression for learners of Arabic as a Second Language learners, it is essential that learners understand polysemy in the Arabic language. The current research will illustrate how sophisticated corpora can function as an effective method in the learning of polysemy as they allow students to observe as well as deduce the meanings of polysemy words in context. More specifically, I will utilize an Arabic corpus to analyze the polysemy of the Arabic word Tayyib (___). Tayyib has a variety of possible meanings and in addition, to many meanings within the different contexts of the Levantine dialect.
