Cognitive-pragmatic Potential of Riddles in Literary Discourse

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Abstract

The studies treat the peculiarities of riddles functioning in different genres of literary discourse in three literary texts by the English writers L. Carroll’s «Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, J. Tolkien’s «Hobbit, Back and Forth» and R. Austin Freeman’s «The Mysterious Visitor». The relevance of this work is determined by the interest of linguists to a riddle as a linguistic phenomenon, possessing a certain cognitive-pragmatic potential, and is still insufficiently researched. As a valuable source of knowledge about the culture and traditions of a particular ethnic group, the riddle has a great linguistic and cultural potential and reflects the variability of the world’s pictures. Coding an object of the existing reality in the riddle aims to create a problem situation for the guesser, who should demonstrate the flexibility and non-standard analytical or insight way of thinking. The purpose of the study is to describe the cognitive-pragmatic potential of riddles functioning in a literary tale and a detective story. It has been established that the riddle can be not only an independent communicative event, but also an integral part of complex literary genres. The use of riddles in literary discourse is motivated by the author’s intention and reflects the creative nature of thinking. In the fairy tale, the riddle is aimed at game communication with a reader, while in the detective discourse it represents the main genre-forming element around which the plot and the system of characters are built.

About the authors

Larisa P. Prokhorova

Kemerovo State University

Author for correspondence.
Email: larpro888@gmail.com
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-2311-2385

PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, the Head of the Department of Romance and Germanic Philology

6, Krasnaya Str., Kemerovo, Russian Federation, 650000

Natalia V. Potapova

Kemerovo State University

Email: nv_potapowa@mail.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7593-1713

PhD in Philology, Associate Professor of the Department of Romance and Germanic Philology

6, Krasnaya Str., Kemerovo, Russian Federation, 650000

Galina A. Zavyalova

Kemerovo State Medical University

Email: galina_zavialova@mail.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7234-4273

PhD in Philology, Associate Professor of the Department of Foreign Languages

22a, Voroshilov Str., Kemerovo, Russian Federation, 650029

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Copyright (c) 2023 Prokhorova L.P., Potapova N.V., Zavyalova G.A.

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