In my paper, I examine how natural phenomena are represented in Hungarian riddles, drawing on a corpus of approximately 15,000 riddle texts. I explore differences in the selection of phenomena appearing in the descriptions and solutions, as well as the use of metaphorical and literal descriptions.
Paper long abstract
While short folklore forms are „all tightly connected to everyday life of the society”, they reflect and conceptualize the environment surrounding their users in various ways. Riddles, as a rule, describe everyday objects and natural phenomena misleadingly, using descriptive elements and concepts belonging to a different register, and pointing out irregular aspects in the appearance or behavior of the described object. This juxtaposition serves as a cue that the statement is to be understood as a riddle.
In my paper, I examine how natural phenomena are represented in Hungarian riddles, drawing on a corpus of approximately 15,000 riddle texts recorded between the 1850s and the 1950s. I explore the differences in the selection of phenomena appearing in the descriptions and solutions, as well as the use of metaphorical and literal descriptions.