Reviewed Work: The Language of Riddles: New Perspectives by W. J. Pepicello, Thomas A. Green

Abstract

This compact study makes a genuine contribution to our understanding of one kind of riddle, the riddle founded on manipulation of the verbal code, of either spoken or written language. It is especially useful for its careful handling of the grammatical trickery underlying riddles whose block element derives from purely linguistic machinations. The authors show how a variety of linguistic features operate to bring about the anomalous verbal propositions found in riddles of this sort. They also present a brief, comparative excursion into Spanish-language riddles, which exhibit many of the same elements documented for English-language riddles.