Theory and Practice of Riddle Analysis

Author(s): Elli Kngs Maranda

Source: The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 84, No. 331, Toward New Perspectives in
Folklore (Jan. - Mar., 1971), pp. 51-61
Published by: American Folklore Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/539733 .
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ELLI KONGAS

MARANDA

Theoryand Practiceof Riddle Analysis'

THISPAPER
HASseveraldistinctaims.First,it is a summaryreporton an original
riddle collection, compiled in Melanesia. Second, it proposes a theory of the
riddle,which I have been workingon since 19652 and which seemsto have in it
elementsthat facilitatethe understandingof verbalart in additionto the riddle.
Third,the paperis intendedas a progressreporton a simplebut rewardinguse of
computersin the masteringandsortingout of a richcorpusof folklore.
The Corpus
This particularcorpusof riddleswas collectedin the SolomonIslandstoward
the end of a period of two yearsof field work, in 1966-1968. The field work
was done off the coastof Malaitain LauLagoon,wherethe Lau have for several
centuriesbeen building artificialislands;in 1966, these numberedfifty-nine,in
1968, sixty-two.Culturally,the Lau identify themselvesas the sea people (toa 'i
asi) and thus distinguishthemselvesfrom the rest of the inhabitantsof Malaita,
who are "hill people" (toa 'i tolo). Linguistically,however,the lagoon inhabitants and the populationsnear the lagoon are very close. At least four North
Malaitandialectscan be seen as branchesof one language,whateverwe might
call it.3
Malaitanmythologyis intertriballyshared,so thatseveralgroupstell storiesof
origin and storiesof the earlyformativehistoryof their world utilizing common
Analysisof
1 A first draft of this paper was read at AnthropologySeminar i, "Computerized
Myth," at the Annual Meetings of the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association, Winnipeg,
1970.
May 29-31,
2 See Elli

K6ngis Maranda,"The Logic of Riddles,"in StructuralAnalysisof OralTradition,ed.

Pierre Marandaand Elli K6ngis Maranda,(Philadelphia, 1971), 189-234; "Perinteentrans277-292; "Structure des enigmes,"L'Homme,
formaatiosdintijentutkimisesta,"Virittiijai(970),
of a RiddleMetaphor,"in StructuralModelsin
9 (1969), 5-48; "A Tree Grows:Transformations
Folklore,and Transformational
Essays(The Hague,1971), II6-I39.
3 For aspectsof Lau ethnographysee Elli K6ngis Maranda,"Les femmes Lau-Malaita, iles
Salomon-dans l'espacesocialist,"Journalde la Socite' des Oceanistes, 26 (1970), 155-162; Pierre
in
Marandaand Elli Kingis Maranda,"Le crane et l'uterus: Deux theoremesnord-malaitains,"
Ilchangeset communications:
Melanges offertsa ClaudeLevi-Straussa l'occasionde son 60Ome
anniversaire,ed. JeanPouillonandPierreMaranda(The Hague,1970), 829-861.

ELLI KONGAS MARANDA

52

myth structures and even shared sets of heroes. The emphasis varies in that one
group's central heroes (who are central because they figure in the genealogies of
the group) become marginal actors in the myths of other groups. But many narratives are clearly widespread; I was able to collect nearly identical stories from
storytellers who could not understand each other's language. The same pertains to
riddles. Consider the following situation:
(I)

Tee noningwane,si mangania 'e fa'ekwamai / nia ka afi/

sui 'e laalae,si mangania 'e araina/ ka talo. /-Ongi.
A man,when he is small/ he is clothed/
after,when he is a marriedman/ he is naked.-Bamboo.
(To 'abaitatribe,Malu'uvillage, RuuelRiano,man,40 years,i May 1968.)

(2)

Tee ngwae,kaidainia ti'iti'i / nia toro /

kaidainia ka gwaro/ nia ka tua dadara.-Kao.
A man,when he is small/ he is clothed/
when he is old / he is naked.-Bamboo.
(Kwara'aetribe,Take'uavillage, Alfred Maitia,man, 35, 4 June 1968.)

(3)

Kadae to'ou / ka ofi /

kadae baita/ ka talu.-Kao.
When he is small/ he is clothed/
when he is grownup / he is naked.-Bamboo.
(Lau tribe,Fou'edaisland,Sula,woman,18, 13 April 1968.)
These three are examples of one riddle from three linguistic groups, corresponding to each other unit by unit, though the riddle posers do not seem to know that
they are reconstructing intercultural items. I will not discuss the origins of such
phenomena, though I might mention in passing that the cultural and historical
relations between these groups can be investigated by means of comparative linguistics or by the comparison of verbal arts, for example, or visual arts, or many
other means.
This is not the only way, however. Even at the present time borrowing from
one group to the other can be documented. For example the Marching Rule,
which for a brief period of time unified Malaitans and probably still is reflected
in an observable feeling of Malaitan identity, had effects other than the political.
When the nine chiefs of the movement went about the island, they travelled in
order to organize people for political ends. Yet, when the chiefs spent nights together in the bush they exchanged narratives; and in 1968, more than twenty
years after the movement, these imported narratives had been firmly established
in the Lau mythological corpus. To me this is a sign of the rigor of these traditional cultures, inasmuch as storytellers are fully capable of modifying imported
narrativesto fit a regional lore.
My collection of Lau riddles is slightly over one thousand in number. Since the
items are not very wordy (indeed riddles and proverbs are classical examples of
the so-called minor forms), they are an interesting and suitable point of departure for a computerized analysis. The corpus is restricted enough to master by
hand, so to speak, so that at least I have the illusion that I can control the findings

THEORY AND PRACTICE OF RIDDLE ANALYSIS

53

and know if indeed computer analysis yields any worthwhile results. Analysis of
riddles will precede my efforts towards the analysis of myth, where the bulk of
the corpus is considerable, including several hundred myths, the longest of which
covers about three hundred printed pages. Impressionistically, I already know the
general characteristicsof the myths, although both translation and analysis are at
the beginning stage.
In Malaitan verbal arts it is useful to contrast riddle and myth. Functionally,
myths seem to reenforce the established order, whereas the primary function of
riddles is to question at least certain kinds of established order. Where myths
prove the validity of land claims, the authority of social and cultural rules, or the
fitness of native conceptual classifications, riddles make a point of playing with
conceptual borderlines and crossing them for the intellectual pleasure of showing
that things are not quite as stable as they appear. In the context of presentation in
Malaita, myths in their sung form are very clearly restricted to ritual occasions:
male specialists sing epics in memorial feasts of a clan, and female specialists sing
them at wakes immediately after the death of prominent persons. The occasions
are emotionally and socially important, and the solemnity of the presentation is
recognized and accentuated by many means. In contrast, riddles are a genre considered to be available to all. Men and women (and even children) may pose and
answer riddles when they so feel. Although riddling quickly gathers a sizeable
audience, a formal gathering is not a prerequisite for the posing of riddles. Thus,
riddles and myths are strongly contrasted in their context, official and solemn for
the presentation of myth and spontaneous and playful for the presentation of
riddles.

A Proposalfor a Theory of the Riddle

Even before going to Melanesia, I had occupied myself some with the analysis
of riddles, studying a corpus of Finnish riddles representative of the range of the
genre in the Finnish Folklore Archives.4 It struck me that the main types in this
corpus of 3,500 items were very few, while, at the same time, it was well-nigh
impossible to find identical items. Traditionally, items from highly formalized
genres such as riddles or magic formulas have been considered repetitions of
earlier items. Scholars have believed what the reciters of verbal art have told
them, namely that you have to repeat an item correctly or it is without value. This
has always been interpreted as meaning that verbal artists simply learn by rote
and repeat mechanically what tradition has handed down to them from previous
generations. I now am convinced that this is a misinterpretation. When people
say that an item must be "correct" in order to be effective, they are referring to
the requirement of following rules of composition that are similar though not
identical to the rules of linguistic competence. A child, when he learns his mother
tongue (or for that matter any person who learns a language) must master a set
of rules of formation and transformation. A performer of lore proceeds in much
4 Martti Haavio and Jouko Hautala, eds., Suomen kansan arvoituskirja [Book of riddles of the
Finnish people], (Helsinki, WSOY, 1946). I have used the fourth facsimile edition, printed in
understand that the archives of the Finnish Society of Letters are preparing a new, "definiI957. I
tive" collection; in the meantime it is worth mentioning that the Haavio-Hautala collection well
meets the standards of riddle anthologies in general and is in fact superior to many.

54

ELLI KONGAS MARANDA

the same way. Incompetencecan explain the mechanicalrepetitionof handeddown forms, but a learnerstrugglesto discoverthe rules that underliecorrectly
formed utterances.Though language is a system that cannot be essentially
manipulatedby one memberof the linguisticgroup, all uses made of a language
arecreativeacts.We learnthe elementsof variouslevels (phenomes,morphemes,
sememes) and the rules of combiningthese elementsso that our utterancesare
acceptableto our audience.Thus, each linguisticperformanceis a uniqueexpression of a linguistic competence.This view, which has been proposedmost recently and most forcefullyby Noam Chomsky,5is almost directlyapplicableto
verbalarts,if we only keep in mind that we are not dealingwith linguisticunits
butwith literaryunits,so to speak.
Riddle analysiscan be made somewhatanalogicallyto syntacticanalysis.We
begin with a full item, which alwaysconsistsof two mainparts:the riddleimage,
that is the riddle as posed,6and the answer,which is simplythe riddle answered
by anotherparty. The presentationconsistsof the interplayof two parties. In
Malaita,for example,these partiesmaybe in competition,althoughthis situation
seemsto be extremelyrare.In such a riddling competitiontwo groupsof youngsters,for exampleboysand girls, sit oppositeto eachotherand alternatein posing
riddles.
The riddle image is alwaysconceptuallya question,be it syntacticallyinterrogative or not. Here we can alreadysee a clear distinctionbetweenlinguisticand
folkloric levels.7The image alwayscontainsa term that is pairedwith the term
of the answer.The juxtapositionof the two things comparedconstitutesa metaphor. In principle these conceptscomparedare in markedcontrastin relation
to the classificationsof the languagein question;they belong to distinctclasses,
suchas animateversusinanimate,or to the realmof natureas opposedto culture,
to objectsas opposedto persons,or to plants as distinctfrom people. By establishing an identitybetweenthese classes,riddlesremindthe speakersof the language that these classificationsare not unassailable.While commonsense in all
languagesmaintainsthatpeople are totallydistinctfrom trees, riddlesin perhaps
all languagescomparetreesto peopleandpeopleto trees.
But the regroupingof classescannotbe done withoutgiving some reasonsfor
establishingthe identity.Even to form a kernel riddle, some commonpoint between the two classesmust be shown. This point is expressedin the wordingof
the image. For example,trees are like people becauseboth grow. This elementI
would call the "commonfunction"of the two termscompared.The functionsof
the termsare then exploredfurther,and other commonpoints are searchedfor.
When a new commonfunctioncanbe found, this then becomesa "transformer"
and enables a riddle poser to present a "transform,"that is a new but related
1965.)
5 See, for example, Noam Chomsky, Aspects of a Theory of Syntax (Cambridge, Mass.,
Ian
6 In this, as in so many other points, I find myself in full agreement with the article by
Hamnett, "Ambiguity, Classification, and Change: The Function of Riddles," Man, new series, 2
I wrote my paper "The Logic of Riddles" during 1965-66, before going to
379-391.
(1967),
Melanesia, and had access to Hamnett's article only upon my return. It is astounding to see how
on
many points of convergence of theory there are in the two papers, although each was based
totally different materials.
Uni7 See my Finnish-American Folklore: Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis (Ann Arbor,
versity Microfilms, 1963).

THEORY AND PRACTICE OF RIDDLE ANALYSIS

55

riddle. An example of the types of transformationthat I have found so far is

"specification,"for example,establishingthat certainkinds of trees can be comparedto women. In the Finnishcorpus,and possiblyin EastEuropeancorporain
general, women and deciduoustrees make metaphors.Another kind of transformationis "generalization."After having explainedthe reproductivepartof a
woman'slife cycle,as well as thatof a tree, the riddleposermakesa riddleabout
death.Now sex no longermatters,and the riddledescribesthe deathof a human
being ratherthanjust the deathof a woman.If the sets usedcontainclearlyestablished complements,"inversion"can enterinto play. In Finnish,deciduoustrees
are female, and they have a complementaryset, that is, evergreens.The complementof womenis, of course,men. By inversion,riddlesdescribingthe life cycleof
women can be transformedto describethe life cycleof men, in termsof the life
of evergreentrees. One furthertransformationexists, and it is statisticallyfar
morefrequentin Europeancorporathanin Melanesian:"reversal."If womenare
like deciduoustreesandcanbe describedby posingriddleimagesdescribingevents
in the life of trees, then trees are like women and can be describedin termsof
eventsin the life of women;thus a bride representsa bloomingtree, a pregnant
womanrepresentsa tree bearingfruit, a widowedwomanis usedas an imageof a
tree that loses its leaves and is standingalone in the winter landscape,and the
falling of treesis representedby humandeath.
To makeup a riddleimage,it is not enoughto namea termand a functionthat
is trueof the term.A furtherelementmustbe introduced,namelya functionthat
does not fit the given term but does fit the answerand will enable the answerer
to find it. For example,still using the same riddle complex,if the riddle image
it is part of a
startsby asking "whattree grows," this is still nonproblematical;
"without
when
a
roots," is
nonfitting function,
perfect, everydaytruism. But
added,the riddle answereris directedto searchfor mobile growing beings. The
riddleanswer,therefore,is not a stableanswer,nor is it an arbitraryanswer.It is
containedin the image,indeed,builtinto the image.This does not meanthateach
riddle has only one answerto it. I have recordedriddling situationsin Malaita
where heated discussionfollowed when a poser did not acceptan answerthat
made sense. It is perhapsa psychologicalphenomenonworth noting that many
riddle posers focus on the answerthat they themselveshave in mind, and they
tendto rejectperfectlysuitablealternatives.
In collectingLau riddles,I learnedto participatein the riddlinggame myself.
I was wary of posing riddles (somethingI regretnow) for fear of influencing
Lauriddlingin some way. It would have been useful to do in riddlingas I did in
the generaluse of the language:build my utterancesas I best could on the basis
of my graspof the rules. As it was, I did not, but my son Erik,then 4 yearsold,
posedamongothersthisacceptableLauriddle:
e kouaoluakwalengwane.--Teefelenaena.
Tootootaa?Teemotokoro
An alligatorcatchesthirtymen.-Fele (a wildspiritfearedfor catchingmen).
The riddle is a perfect Lau riddle except for the beginning, a formulathat Erik
took from Lau children'sstoriesand which is very close in meaningand use to
"onceupona time." (Tootoo/taa?meansliterally,'itwas/what?'.)
My successin answeringLau riddles was considerable.In riddle sessionsre-

MARANDA
ELLI KO**NGA*S
56
cordedon tape, I have passageswhere I answerseveralriddlesin a row and receivewarmpraisefrom otherparticipantsin the session.Conventionalfolklorists
would of courseaccuseme of undulyinfluencingLauoral tradition;I am myself
conventionalenough not to overdo my participationin the culturebut mention
this point to emphasizethat the collector'sethics need not force him to play
dummywhen he lives amongthe grouphe is studying.Theoreticallyspeaking,I
attemptedansweringLau riddles becauseI wanted to test my understandingof
Lau riddle formation;in truth,I got carriedawayby the fun and excitementof
the occasion.No one should, indeed, be accusedof impropermethodsif he does
fieldworkin the vernacular.

The Nature of Texts

Paul Radin, in "The Literatureof PrimitivePeoples,"askedthe question:do
fixed texts exist? He answeredit in the negative.8This is a revolutionaryview.
Folklorescholarshipon the whole has seen folkloricitems as fixed texts handed
down in apostolicsuccessionas it were. Knowledgeablestorytellershave able students, older generationshand texts down to youngergenerations,and the only
changesthatoccurareimpoverishment,shortening,and deteriorationof text. This
where numerousvariantsof
theoryhas been firmlyadheredto in circumstances
the same narrative,sung or spoken, were collected, published, and analyzed.
The conceptof stabilityof folklore was challengedin the 1920s by MartinP.
Nilsson;9 in the 1930s by Milman Parryand later by his successorand student
Albert Lord.10Independentlyand in parallel fashion it was also questionedby
George Herzog, an ethnomusicologiststudying African music, in a meritorous
article called "Stabilityof Form in Traditionaland CultivatedMusic.""1These
an obviousone being the nature
scholarsoffereddifferentkindsof interpretations,
of writing.In otherwords,it was notedthatwritingfixes a text, epic or lyric,and
thatvariationthenis seenas a faultyuse of the "sacred"text.
The view I am proposingdiffersfrom theirs. I startwith the hypothesisthat
verbal art is a form of communication,and that the key to understandingthis
kind of communicationis to be found in studyingour way of handlinglanguage.
We are awarethat a personwho knows a languagedoes not mechanicallyrepeat
ready-madesentencesbut builds sentencesaccordingto certainrules (the grammar of the languagein question). A child does not learn sentences;he learns
Thus,
wordsrelatedto theirmeanings,and rulesof formationandtransformation.
the
because
about
it
comes
and
a
seen
as
each sentenceis
speaker
performance,
(child, adult,foreigner) has acquiredcompetence.Grammaticalrulesare competence rules.This is applicableto the interpretationof myth.Interestinglyenough,
in the cultureI studiedin the field, this is the singers'and storytellers'own interpretation.
Fixed texts do not exist, not becauseof people'sfaultymemoriesin the absence
8 Paul Radin, "The Literature of Primitive Peoples," Diogenes (Winter, 1955) 2-4.
9 Martin P. Nilsson, A History of Greek Religion, translated from the Swedish by F. J. Fielden,
with a preface by Sir James G. Frazer (Oxford, 1925) 38-75.
10 Albert Lord, The Singer of Tales (Cambridge, Mass., i96o).
of Form in Traditional and Cultivated Music," in Papers Read by
1x George Herzog, "Stability
the Members of the American Musicological Society in the Annual Meetings, Washington, D.C.,
Dec. 29 and 30 (1940), 69-73.

THEORY AND PRACTICE OF RIDDLE ANALYSIS

57

of writingbutbecauseof thenatureof orallycultivated

arts.If twoidenticaltexts
canbe found,this is dueto coincidence,
becausethe sameelements("building
ruleswereused.Sincein thecaseof a lengthy
blocks")andthesamecombinatory
thatwe
narrative
thisstatistically
is extremelyimprobable,
we mayrestconfident

will neverfind identicaltexts. However,for shorttexts, suchas riddles,proverbs,

and the like, this is possible,but so far ourcomputerhas not spottedtwo identical
Lauriddles.
If we then have ruledout the fixedtext, shouldthatnot open the way for total
anarchy?All is possible;therefore,is everythingacceptable?No. Firstof all, not
everythingis possible. Culturaland social restrictionslimit the use of what I
called building blocks, and the combinatoryrules discoveredin the analysisof
verbalartare so far surprisinglyfew. (By analogy,typesof transformationfound
in the English language by Chomskyare only three: negative transformation,
question,and passive.) In recentyearsI have mappedpossibleriddletransformations.Thereseemto be four: reversal,inversion,particularization,
andgeneralization. Thatis all so far.
Lord and othershave said, essentially,that what a performerlearnsis a stock
of plots, a stockof elements,and a way of utilizing the elementsin his recitalof
the plot. I maintainthatas far as narrativesgo a performerutilizesthe following:
(i) oppositionsrecognizedin the cultureand acquiredby him when he acquired
the language; (2) contrastsor problemsimportantin the culture;and (3) ways
(combinatoryrules) that tell him how it is possibleto discussthese problemsin
a narrativeform. Similarly,the personwho learnsriddles does not learnriddles
as such; he learns how to make acceptableriddles by utilizing linguistic (especially semantic) classifications,finding commonpoints in presumablydistinct
classes,and exploringall the points of contactthat can be found. When a riddle
poserhasexhaustedall the commonfunctionsof two terms (andpossiblyreversed
the termsso that the image becomesthe answerand vice versa), then he has exhaustedthe possibilitiesof this comparisonand will proceedto comparesome
other pair of terms. Riddles at a certainlevel, therefore,can be seen as metalanguage,since they are certainlya devicefor discussingessentialfeaturesof the
languagein question.rt is interestingto note that the Lau find riddling sessions
relaxing,intriguing,and enjoyable;and althoughthey attributemoresocialvalue
to theirmythologyand to the occasionsin whichthe mythologyis presented,they
also openly say that the recitalof mythsis a tediousjob and places strainon the
audience.It is for this reasonthat the performersof mythwatchthe audiencefor
theirreactions.If the audienceis obviouslyboredthey resortto certaintricks;they
changethe melodyused, cuttingshortan unpopularsection,and they insertjokelike comicalstatements,allusions,what clearlyis obscenityfor the Lau,and such.
Both riddlingsessionsand myth recitalscanbe long affairs,takingthe betterpart
of a night. Yet, in riddling, people do not need to be kept awake,althoughin
myth telling sessions the performer must make sure that he keeps his audience
awake. The length of the items, of course, has something to do with this. Riddles
are brief; one performer cannot dominate the situation very long because every
riddle image is answered by another party, and the whole situation is highly reciprocal and vivacious. In epic singing, the audience has to be attentive for long
periods of time without truly participating. They respond, sometimes with shouts

58

ELLI KONGAS MARANDA

of enthusiasm,but they are listenersratherthan activeparticipants.In both cases

the creativework is done by the performer,the singer of tales and the poser of
riddles; the audiencecan only react.But the reactionin myth singing consists
mostly of seeing that the performerfollows the rules of compositionand the
estheticrules,whereasthe personwho answersa riddle must examinethe image
to spot his clue, to find what is wrong, and to correctthe statementwith his
answer,asit were.He cannotcreate,buthe is working.
ComputerAnalysis to Date
Purelytechnicalreasonshavesloweddown computeranalysisof the Lauriddles
so far. Suchtechnicalreasonsinclude, for example,the availabilityof key-punch
operators,andcomputerprograms.Presently,I am still analyzingthe corpusin the
"vernacular,"that is, in Lau. This, of course,meansthat I have to do all proofreadingandcomparablesecretarialtasks.
Nearly one half of the corpushas been keypunched.To date, I have used data
edited only for the accuracyof phonemictranscription.This means actuallyno
editing. I have chosen to postpone any editing because,among other considerations,I want to treatthe corpusalso as a linguisticdocument.I have dataon the
age, sex, clan membership,and social position of the riddle posers;and I wish
to analyzethe corpusat somepoint takingthesebiographicalaspectsinto consideration. It will be of interestto see whetherthose who haveotheroutletsfor public
expression(men in general, leading men in particular,specialistsin myth singing and ritualdancing,curers,and priests) careto use the "underdog'schannel"
of riddlingor not. It is my impressionthatthis artformis utilizedby thosepersons
to whom other institutionalizedexpressionis denied: women, commoners,unmarriedmen, andchildren.On the basisof my own observationsandthe theoryof
their languagethat the Lau maintain,I expect slight dialectvariationsdictated
by community,clanmembership,age, andsex.
Lau do not have a markedriddlestyle (in contrastto Finns, for example,who
do). Consequently,it is necessaryor at least helpful to utilize opening formulas.
That is, a formulaicopeningservesartisticallythe samefunctionas does a special,
well-recognizedstyle; it announcesthe occasion,it directs the expectationsof
the audience.
The commonform of an openingformulais gemo or gemo tee gemo. The term
is roughlyan equivalentto our world "riddle."Thus, the Lau riddle poser ananouncessimply his intentionby namingthe genre he is aboutto present.This
formulais used in 89 percentof the cases.The remainingare dividedas follows:
i percent uses the formula "Do you know one thing?" ('oe haitamana tee doo?);

io percenthaveno formula(markedooo in my keypunching).

I have so far used only the most elementaryprograms,Count and Concord.
Their utilizationis very inexpensive,and it yields certainresultsotherwiseunobtainable. The first direct result, since I am using texts in their original language,
is that the Count Program automatically gives me a dictionary of the corpus in
an alphabetic order. The dictionary is not perfect in the ordinary sense because

it does not give translations,but it is at the same time revolutionaryin that not
only are all the words included but their frequencies are also noted. Dictionary
writing is further facilitated by the use of the Concord Program. (Its functional

THEORY AND PRACTICE OF RIDDLE ANALYSIS

59

equivalentKWIC-Key Words in Context-performs much the same service.)

These two programsprovidethe contextof eachword chosenas a keyword,that
is, eachuse of eachwordthatis desired.
Some preliminaryobservationsaboutthe numbersof words can be made.The
first iooo words of the corpusresultedin 252 sortedwords (differentwords).
The second iooo added I50 differentwords, the third to fifth thousand,ioo to
each iooo, the sixth to ninth thousand,82 to each iooo, but the tenth to twelfth
thousandadded only about 30 new words per thousand.I am thus not yet approachingthe point of no return,although the returnshave diminishedquite
radically.
The high numberof new wordsat this stagemust,in my opinion,be explained
by the largenumberof individualriddleposersreflectedin the corpus,particularly
when one contrastsit with the length of a myth text where one storytellercould
include twelve thousandwords in one item. We have in riddles linguisticdata
of a very specialkind, comparableto utterancesin a free-forall publicmeetingas
opposedto a lecture,for example.
Concordcanundoubtedlyhelp in the generalsemanticanalysis,especiallywhen
the materialsused are riddles,where a contrastinguse of termsis frequent.I will
justgive a quickexampleof typicalcontrastsin Lauriddles:
'afa.e-gwaria(bitter--fresh)One wouldexpect'afae-masia (bitter-sweet), but
thereis no such"instance.
(raw[fruit]-ripe)
akasa---kwaso
to'ou-baita (small-big) Frequent,anda contrastusedto expressrankas oftenas
size.
bubulua-kwakwaoa (black-white); abu asi-kwakwaoa (black as sea-white)

mae-mouri (living-dead) Or"tolive-to die"

'i haegano-'i langi(low-high)
rodo-dani (night-day)
ada-teo (awake-asleep)
'i asi-'i tolo (sea-inland)
'i sukulu-'i ukita(Christian-pagan)Lit."School-wicked"
fanga-fefee (to eat-to defecate)
gou-mimi (to drink-to urinate)
ngae-faka (anus-mouth)
We will soon have accessto programsthat should make it quite easy to spot
contrastsanddoublecontrast,for example:
sleeps
at day
wakes
atnight.
Many featuresof Lau riddling point towardthe hypothesisthat riddles question "theestablishment,"as opposedto myths,which reinforceestablishedorder,
and that, moreover,the riddlesare a devicefor discussingchange.Technological
change in the present-dayLau world comesfrom the outside, from contactwith
Western technology.If my hypothesisis correct,riddles should prove this; and
they do in the followingway:
In riddles,pidgin Englishwords have a high frequency,as opposedto myths.

ELLI KONGAS MARANDA

60o
Whereas in myth texts the ratio will be negligible (perhapso. percent), in
riddlesit is roughly6 percent.Pidgin words are introducedwhen their referents
are introduced;thus, for example,the introductionof the steel axe broughtalong
the word hakisi. Riddles, of course,have as their topic (signatum) the thing
mentionedin the answer.If riddles are aboutnew things, pidgin Englishwords
should appearin the answersmore frequentlythan in the images.The frequency
ratiois roughlyfifteento one (answerto image).

Conclusion
The emphasisof this paperis on the side of the theoryratherthanon methods
or techniquesof analysis.This is so becausethe work discussedhere is in its
beginning stages. The theoreticalposition taken is that culture,verbal arts included, is a living thing or it is nothing. At the presenttime we in folkloristics
aregenerallyveryfar from acceptingthe survivaltheoryof the nineteenthcentury.
Yet, texts-riddles and narrativesamongthem-are seen too often as survivals,
objectscreatedonce and for all and then more or less batteredin the handling.
It may finally becomea point of faith to acceptor to rejectthe view that man
anywhereand everywhereis creative.I chooseto maintainthatfolkloricutterances
are createdwheneverthey are made. Perhapsthe rules of compositionare quite
strictfor certaingenres;on the other hand, we have known for a long time that
they are quite lenient for others.Just becausewe have been able to capturetexts
in the flight, we should not worshipthese texts as sacred.As a graduatestudent,
I wrote a paper in which I attemptedto distinguishbetweenthe folkloric item
and the text.'2I said then that a fittingdescriptionfor an archivedtext would be
to say it is like a photographof a personbut not the personhimself. I am now
morethaneverconvincedof the truthof this statement,andI alsonow haveproof.
It diminishesthe scholar'sfeel of masteryof his materialswhen he discoversthat
his most diligent recordingcan captureonly shadows;but it should consolehim
to know that there is, beyondhis reach,a phenomenonricherthan the shadows.
In conclusion,I would like to expressmy gratitudeto the RadcliffeInstituteof
HarvardUniversityfor theirfinancialandmoralsupportbothduringthe preparation for the field workand the field workitself. Especiallydo I want to thankthe
Directorof the Institute,Dean ConstanceE. Smith,who showedvivid interestin
this work.
It is impossible to adequatelythank my friends in Lau Lagoon who with
infinitepatiencetaughtme theirlanguage,theirriddlesand theirmythsand other
narratives;who constantlykeptme awareof whatwas going on andwhatit meant;
who pointed out the rules of proper conduct,and, throughoutmy stay in the
Lagoon, encouragedme to learn more and to learn it better;who fed my older
son and rockedthe baby so that I should be free to do a properjob. I do not
expect ever againto be so close to so manypeople and to be allowedto shareso
intimatelythe joys and the sorrowsof life. I considerthe vast materialsgiven
to me a greattrustand the aim of my workto communicateto othersthe richness
of a farawayculture,the sophisticationwith which it is perceivedand nourished.
andthe prideits carrierstakein it.
12

Elli-Kaija K6ngiis Maranda, "The Concept of Folklore," Midwest Folklore, 13 (1963), 69-88.

THEORY AND PRACTICE OF RIDDLE ANALYSIS

6I

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Computer analyses have been done so far mostly on lengthy texts; I would note Benjamin Colby's
articles, "Cultural Patterns in Narratives," Science, I51, (1965), 793-798 and others of his oftenquoted works; also Pierre Maranda, "Formal Analysis and Inter-Cultural Studies," Social Science
Information, 6:4 (1967), 7-36; "Recherches structurales en mythologie aux Etats-Unis: Lecture
m&canographiquedes mythes," Social Science Information, 6:5 (1967), 213-222; "Computers in
the Bush: Tools for the Automatic Analysis of Myths," in Essays on the Verbal and Visual Arts:
Proceedings of the 1966 Annual Spring Meeting of the American Ethnological Society, ed. June
Helm (Seattle, 1967), 77-83; "Analyse quantitative et qualitative de mythes sur ordinateur," Calcul
et formalisation dans les sciences de l'homme (Paris, 1968), 79-86; "Informatique et mythologie,"
Informatique en sciences humaines (U. E. R. de mathematiques, logique formelle et informatique,
Sorbonne, Paris, 1970), 1-21. It is worth mentioning that a team of researchers is analyzing a
large corpus of French proverbs with the help of computers in Musbe National des Arts et Traditions Populaires in Paris, under the direction of Dr. Jean Cuisenier, the Director of the Museum.

Universityof BritishColumbia
Vancouver,Canada