Semantic Analysis of Animals Sobriquets in Arabic Language

The immense extent and richness of Arabic lexical resources which bring about a great semantic extension, emerge in different ways, one of which is sobriquet. Arabs used “Alam” (proper noun) in three different forms, namely sobriquet, nickname and noun. In certain cases and due to rhetoric and semantic reasons, Arabs used sobriquet instead of noun or nickname. Gradually, this application became widespread and percolated into animal and object realms. The introduction and analysis of animal sobriquets can help us understand Arabic texts and translate them accurately. Besides, it can provide semantic principles of articulating animal sobriquets. The sobriquet discussion has been presented as one of the main discussions of Arabic grammar and significant works has been composed on human sobriquets. Nonetheless, the main concern of this study is to fill the gap in the animal sobriquets and its semantic reasons. The present study has been conducted using a descriptive-analytical method, and seeks to confirm that establishment of sobriquets in Arabic language is due to certain semantic reasons. This includes reference to marriage-driven relationships, existential reasons, originality, concomitance, public beliefs and opinions, myths, etc.