THE LINGUISTIC COMPLEXITY OF HOMONYMY IN THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE

This study analyzes the extensive nature of the homonymy (dōon-igi-go) phenomenon in the Japanese language, exploring its phonological origins, the role of kanji (characters) and pitch accent in semantic disambiguation, and the cognitive mechanisms employed by speakers. Unlike Indo-European languages, it is a common and systematic occurrence in Japanese for a single phonetic sequence to correspond to dozens of distinct semantic units. The research reveals the conflict between phonetic economy and semantic clarity. The results indicate that the Japanese writing system, pitch accent, and computational linguistics algorithms in digital systems serve as the primary mechanisms for resolving ambiguities in speech.