Abstract:
Riddle, a form of literary art in which a speaker employs formulaic expressions to test
someone’s wit on a veiled phenomenon, is deployed in languages (including Yorùbá) to
express peoples’ experiences about their environment. Previous studies on Yorùbá
riddles focused mainly on literary classification and stylistic features, with little attention
paid to interpersonal and textual meaning of the language of Yorùbá riddles. This study
was, therefore, designed to investigate interpersonal and textual meaning of the language
of Yorùbá riddles, with a view to describing the riddle type, interaction indices, mood
types and cohesive devices in the riddles.
M. A. K. Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar was adopted as the framework, while
the interpretive design was used. Three texts on Yorùbá riddles- Abío̩ ̩́dún Àjàyí’s Ìtúpalè̩
Àló̩ Àpamò̩, Adésuà Adéle̩ ̩́ye̩ ’s Àló̩ and Akínye̩ mí Akíntúndé’s Orature and Yorùbá
Riddles-were purposively selected based on their richness in riddles. Three hundred
riddles (100 from each text) were randomly sampled. The data were subjected to stylistic
analysis.
Two types of riddles were identified, namely derived and non-derived riddles. Derived
riddles begin with topicalised unit of information, while the non-derived riddles start
with un-topicalised unit of information. The logico-semantic relationship between the
riddle’s information units and the experiential participants determines the content
proposition of both types. Seven interaction indices were deployed: opening-phrase,
personal names, vocatives, pronouns, tense shift, proponent’s evaluative comments and
mood types. Opening-phrase ‘Àló̩ o (it is time for riddles); Àlò̩ (let riddles begin) express
interlocutors’ readiness for riddling. Personal names and vocatives signal a discreet
identity of riddle objects. Pronouns N/mo(I), a (we) and won (they) reflect the
proponent’s perception of the relationship between himself and respondents. Mo (I)
refers to proponent excluding respondents, while a (we) refers to the group, including
the respondent as participant in the unfolding of events that predicate the riddles’
propositions. Tense shift between present and past forms, together withhigh tone
syllables. The clause ó gbà á (You are right) or ó ò gbà á together with kùnńǹ (you are
wrong) are used by proponent in confirming or rejecting answers to riddles. Declarative
mood defines proponent as the producer and respondents as the recipient of information.
Interrogative mood assigns recipient and provider roles to the proponent and respondents
respectively. Jussive mood defines proponent as the reporter and the respondent as the
recipient of the information. The established grammatical cohesive devices are
reference, with exophoric and endophoric possibilities; conjunction sùgbó̩n (but), tún
(also)and bé̩ e ̀̀ ni (and); verbal ellipsis; and nominal substitution, which conserves the
truism between riddles and their solutions. Deployment of lexical cohesion is
prominently preserved through reiterative processes: repetition, synonym, antonym and
super-ordination typified metonyms and hyponym.
The interpersonal and textual meaning of the language of Yorùbá riddles express
interactivity and textual compactness in conveying attributive information about the
identity of a concealed experience.