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9 Key Features of Riddles

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1. Use introductory formulas to attract attention by:

• Challenge the reader: "Guess guesser!"; "Guess, if you're a good guesser!";

• Inciting with questions: "What will it be, what does it have...?"; "Who am I, what...?"

• Locate in time and space: "In heaven I am..."; "First I was small..."; "I was born in the water...".

• Initial identification: "I'm as small as..."; "Yellow like the..."; "I have a spine and no...".

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2. Use guiding elements in the form of hidden or fragmented keywords in the text, creating clues that unite them, awaken the imagination of the recipient until you come to build meaning and find the solution. Example: "I tell you, I tell you" (the cloth); "In the middle of the sky I am and never in the water I go" (the letter"e").

 

3. They include disorienting elements by using verses with deceptive clues, double meaning or rhetorical figures, making comparisons, personifications, and animalizations. In order to disorient the receiver and find it difficult to find the solution. When the options are presented in a confusing way, the answers may be several, the correct one being the most innocent option, which the issuer uses to deceive the fortune teller. Example: "Whistle and I have no mouth..." (The wind); "I run and I do not have legs..." (Time); "I am long and stubborn..." (The tree). What interests the game is deciphering the answer, using ingenuity, imagination, association, and a bit of suspicion.

 

4. Completion formulas are established when closing the riddle the receiver is invited to find the solution and continue with the game, using motivating words that indicate:

• Ease: "In your sight the answer is"; "Clearer does not crow a cock."

• Difficulty: "You will not guess it..."; "You must think big to achieve...".

• Courage to try: "I am sure, that you will guess today"; "If you want to guess, wait a little longer."

• Derision: "He who does not guess, he is very foolish." "If you can not guess, donkey ears are going to jump you."

• Challenge: "If you are smart, you can guess"; "If you have ingenuity, you will be able to decipher."

• Reward: "If you can guess, you will be the great master"; "The best diviner, receives the award".

 

5. They have an aesthetic and poetic function by presenting an abstract image, which is narrated in rhetorical form and in the form of verses, which take on a concrete meaning. Most of these verses are octosyllabic, though they may also be hexasyllabic and pentasyllabic, with an assonant or consonant cross-rhyme. They are usually distributed in stanzas of two to four verses, although sometimes they can have six or eight. By its poetic nature, it is melodic and rhythmic of easy memorization and acceptance. Being able to add changes, according to the environment and taste of people.

Example:

" As small as a mouse, and cares like a lion. (The lock)

" I have leaves and I am not a tree, I have back and I am not a horse ". (The book)

 

6. They have a type of didactic type. This is evidenced in the use of crossword puzzle games for intellectual development, aimed at children, youth, and adults. Word structures are presented which, by organizing them in a coherent way, can find the solution, thus fostering in the receiver the capacity for logical reasoning and communicative ability. The riddle is intended to make the participant decipher a linguistic code that communicates a message in a confusing way. In this way, they learn to associate, memorize, compare, and formulate their conclusions, in order to finally discover the correct answer.

 

7. Develop linguistic aspects. The riddles impel the reading, the analysis, and the understanding of what is read. In the same way, they allow identifying some linguistic aspects such as lexicon, syntax, and semantics.

• The lexicon: Because it is an interaction mainly of oral type, the riddles can have a poetic or daily language. Poetic with the construction of meanings from rhetorical figures, through simile, metaphor, among other tools, that help to transform the pronouns, adjectives, and nouns.

Example:

He lives on high,

At the top dwells,

Above weaves

The weaver.

(The spider)

• The syntax: Almost always the order of the words is altered, more so when its sequence can unveil the riddle. That is why comparative or adversative associations are made with verbs, adjectives, pronouns, etc. To confuse the diviner.

I brought them from the market,

And they were very black,

Being already in my house,

They turned red. 

(Charcoal)

• Semantics: Words are added that help to clarify the unknown and contribute to the creation of other meanings through the use of analogies, puns, metaphors, etc., that by ordering, enumeration or addition, contribute to the poetry a rhythm And intonation.

Example:

I'm boring and stubborn,

Bald, round, glossy,

Llorona and stinky,

And I am more stinky,

When I bite the hair.

(The onion)

 

8. They are recreational and playful. Riddles are hobbies to entertain by building puzzles of words until you reach the meaning of the riddle. These puzzles have reached different spaces such as family, community, and school, as they offer everyone a healthy time of fun. You can create riddles of various themes, subjects, animals, objects, etc., letting your imagination fly to organize ideas and challenge the opponent. To play the riddles, you must follow a logical structure for the presentation of the puzzle. They are written in the form of verses and presented to a receiver, to awaken their interest in fantasy, the search for the unknown and the resolution of the mystery.

 

9. They develop an identity. Since they are a kind of sayings created by the community, in which they develop topics that deal with important local aspects. They allow to identify a community, tango the language as its subjects treated in them, contributing to the diffusion of the popular traditions.

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Source: https://www.lifepersona.com/9-important-features-of-riddles