The Riddle as an Object of Linguistic Research
- DOI
- 10.5922/2225-5346-2017-3-6
- Pages
- 104-114
Abstract
The article considers the riddle as an object of linguistic research. Today, studying riddles remains relevant, since they have not been examined from the perspective of cultural linguistics. The cultural meanings preserved in traditional riddles across nations have not been identified and described. However, filling this gap requires an analysis of the most prominent research works I the field. The most fundamental works on the structure, semantics, and pragmatics of riddles are considered in this article. The author reviews the ideas of Russian and international researchers on different aspects of riddle studies within the two major approaches — the philological and ethnolinguistic ones. The article stresses the contribution made by the compilers of collections of riddles to riddle studies. Different ways to organize collections of riddles are described in the case of Russian and English editions. The article identifies the ideas both common and unique to individual riddle researchers and summarizes their findings. The author lays groundwork for further research on riddles from the perspective of linguistics, in particular, cultural linguistics.
Reference
1. Aristotel', 1998. Poetics. On the art of poetry. In: Aristotel'. Etika. Politika. Ritorika. Poetika. Kategorii [Ethics. Politics. Rhetoric. Poetics. Categories]. Minsk. pp. 1064—1112.
2. Golovacheva, A. V., 1994. To the question of pragmatics of riddle. In: Issledovaniya v oblasti balto-slavyanskoi dukhovnoi kul'tury. Zagadka kak tekst 1 [Studies in the field of the Baltic- Slavonic spiritual culture. Riddle like text. 1]. Moscow, pp. 195—213.
3. Dal', V. I., 1863. Tolkovyi slovar' zhivogo velikorusskogo yazyka [Explanatory dictionary of the living Great Russian language]. Moscow. Part. 1.
4. Zhurinskii, A. N., 1989. Semanticheskaya struktura zagadki: Nemetaforicheskie preobrazovaniya smysla [Semantic structure of the riddle: Non-metaphorical transformations of the meaning]. Moscow.
5. Kenges-Maranda, E., 1978. Logic of riddles. In: G. L. Permyakov, ed. Paremiologicheskii sbornik. Poslovitsa. Zagadka (Struktura, smysl, tekst) [Paremiological collection. Proverb. Riddle (Structure, meaning, text)]. Moscow, pp. 249—282.
6. Kovshova, M. L., 2015. Idiom and riddle. Mysteriousness of the idiom. In: V. Dem’yankov, E. Pozdnyakova, eds. Kognitivnye issledovaniya yazyka. Lingvisticheskie tekhnologii v gumanitarnykh issledovaniyakh. Vyp. XXIII [Cognitive studies of the language. Linguistic technologies in humanitarian research. Issue XXIII]. Moscow; Tambov, pp. 643— 651.
7. Levin, Yu. I., 1978. Semantic structure of the riddle. In: G. L. Permyakov, ed. Paremiologicheskii sbornik. Poslovitsa. Zagadka (Struktura, smysl, tekst) [Paremiological collection. Proverb. Riddle (Structure, meaning, text)]. Moscow, pp. 283—314.
8. Rybnikova, M. A., 1932. Zagadki [Riddles]. Moscow; Leningrad.
9. Sadovnikov, D. N., 1876. Zagadki russkogo naroda. Sbornik zagadok, voprosov, pritch i zadach [Riddles of the Russian people. Collection of riddles, questions, parables and tasks]. St. Petersburg.
10. Senderovich, S. Ya., 2008. Morfologiya zagadki [Morphology of the riddle]. Moscow.
11. Toporov, V. N., 2006. To the reconstruction of the "mysterious" proto-text (about the language of riddle). In: Toporov, V. N. Issledovaniya po etimologii i semantike. T. 2: Indoevropeiskie yazyki i indoevropeistika. Kn. 2 [Studies on etymology and semantics. Vol. 2: Indo- European Languages and Indo-European Studies. Book. 2]. Moscow, pp. 471—483.
12. Abrahams, R. D., Dundes, A., 1972. Riddles. Folklore and Folklife: The Introduction. Chicago, pp. 129—144.
13. Georges, R. A., Dundes, A., 1963. Toward a Structural Definition of the Riddle. The Journal of American Folklore, 76(300), pp. 111—118.
14. Hamnett, I., 1967. Ambiguity, classification and change: the function of riddles. Available at: http://www. era. anthropology. ac. uk/Era_Resources/Era/Riddles/hamnet. html [Accessed 14 April 2017].
15. Taylor, A., 1951. English Riddles from Oral Tradition. Berkley; Los Angeles.
16. Green, T. A., Pepicello, W. J., 1979. The Folk Riddle: A Redefinition of Terms. Western Folklore, 38(1), pp. 3—20.