Children just entering elementary school have mastered the
basic linguistic resources of their native tongue.
basic linguistic resources of their native tongue.
Childens - Folklore
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0
? ? popular of these demonstrates these characteristics:
35. What's black and white and red all over? -a newspaper.
The ubiquity of the "newspaper riddle" (Barrick 1974) has fostered a range
of alternate answers: "a blushing zebra," "a skunk with diaper rash," "a
bleeding nun," "an integration march," and "an Afro-American Santa
Claus" (Knapp and Knapp 1976, 108; see also Weiner 1970, 37-38; McCosh
1976, 176-77; and Bronner 1988, 288-90 ff. ). With these answers, the hom-
onymic play in the question disappears and "red" is interpreted merely as
the name of a color. When coupled with an answer such as "a blushing ze-
bra," the interrogative shifts from the status of a true riddle question to that
of a question in a joking riddle (discussed below).
Routines that interfere markedly in their own interpretation can be
divided into two subgroups. Visual descriptive riddles and gestural riddles
inhibit deciphering by the very flexibility of their codes. Outside of the or-
thographic code, which visual descriptive riddles do not address anyway,
there exists no standard "grammar" for interpreting individual squiggles,
dots, and blotches inscribed on a page. A line may mean one thing in one
drawing and quite another in a second drawing. Furthermore, because it is
the riddle answer that gives significance to the inscription, a riddle with a
variety of answers can interpret its drawing in a variety of ways (for example,
no. 28). Similar points can be raised with gestural riddles, but there the re-
spondent must work not only with basically uncoded data but also with data
that are kinesic and therefore highly ephemeral.
Joking riddles are the second category of forms that are extremely
difficult of solution. To be sure, joking routines can differ in the quality of
their humor, but, generally speaking, the propositions serve primarily as a
setup for the punch line of the answer:
36. What is the worst weather for rats and mice? --when it's rain-
ing cats and dogs. (Leventhal and Cray 1963, 254)
37. What's tall and says eef eif [eof] muf? -a backward giant.
(McCosh 1976, 176)
THE PARODIC IMPULSE
Parodic forms are not so much a distinct category of riddle as they are forms
that extend the humor of joking riddles into absurdity and nonsense. Pa-
rodic riddles adopt the organizational strategies of more conservative forms.
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? ? What marks them as extensions is the degree of violence they do to assump-
tions of everyday life.
Parodic riddles are very popular among urban children, and various
researchers have commented on this fascination. Alto Jablow and Carl With-
ers (1965) view the riddles as safety-valve mechanisms that enable young-
sters to express their amused, angry, or frightened awareness of the fast-
paced, violent, and often irrational world in which they live. If the routines
are absurd and meaningless, Jablow and Withers argue, it is because urban
society itself reflects those characteristics (1965, 252-55). For their part,
Mary and Herbert Knapp (1976) agree that children may become connois-
seurs of chaos in buffering themselves against modern life. The Knapps,
however, also advance an alternate explanation. Urban children, they sug-
gest, have developed sophisticated tastes in their folk humor. Because pa-
rodic forms deal in ambiguity and nonsense, they speak to children's almost
insatiable fascination with complex and startling relationships (1976, 111).
Some parodic riddles can be used to challenge assumptions about
what is possible in the everyday world. We can understand how an answer
fits its question, yet what the riddle as a whole proposes is nonsensical given
a conventional understanding of the "real" world. If what these riddles sug-
gest were valid, we would need to reorganize our conception of the world
around us. Examples of parodic forms include the following:12
Description:
38. What's big and grey with a purple spot in the middle? -an
elephant hit by a Comanche grape. (Weiner 1970, 32)
39. What's green and flies from planet to planet? -an interplan-
etary cucumber. (Knapp and Knapp 1976, 110)
40. (Snap your fingers in the air several times, jerking your hand
up and down. ) "What's this? "-a butterfly with hiccups (or, a
drunk butterfly). (Leventhal and Cray 1963, 249)
41. FIG. A clam with buck teeth (Roemer, unpublished data).
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? ? Contrast:
42. What's the difference between unloading dead babies and un-
loading bowling balls? -you can't use a pitchfork to unload bowl-
ing balls. (Knapp and Knapp 1976, 111)
Classification/Definition:
43. What do you call a werewolf in a Dacron suit? --a wash and
werewolf. (Knapp and Knapp 1976, 110)
Effect/Cause:
44. Why do elephants have flat feet? -from jumping out of palm
trees. (McCosh 1976, 224)
Catch Riddles
Using metacommunicative techniques, other riddles violate the conventions
of riddling as a particular type of social exchange. No. 45 below challenges
the expectation that a riddler's question will provide information relevant
to the answer. Here, the respondents receive only part of the formulaic in-
formation characteristic of contrast riddles. Beyond that, the respondents are
on their own:
45. A: What's the difference?
B: Between what?
A: On this one I'm giving you no clues. (Jablow and Withers
1965, 249)
Other riddles are iconoclastic in other ways. No. 46 begins with a descrip-
tive question, the conventional way of initiating some of the most conser-
vative of English-language riddles. It concludes, however, by challenging the
assumption that riddlers know the answer to the questions they pose:
46. What's red, purple, green, yellow, gray, purple, sky-blue, and
green?
-I don't know, that's why I'm asking you. (McCosh 1976, 178)
A related surprise awaits respondents with no. 47. In addition to not sup-
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? ? plying a satisfactory resolution, the riddle threatens the respondent's assump-
tion of physical security:
47. A: What has six legs, fuzzy ears, and a long tail?
B: What?
A: I don't know, but there's one on your back. (McCosh 1976,
178)
In this and other catch riddles (Roemer 1977), the respondents are set up
for victimization. By cooperating with what they think is the first speaker's
intent, the respondents place themselves unknowingly in a vulnerable posi-
tion. The trickster capitalizes on this vulnerability at the riddle's conclusion:
Description:
48. What word starts with F and ends with CK? -firetruck.
(Winslow 1966c, 172)
Contrast:
49. A: What's the difference between an egg and an elephant?
B: I don't know, what?
A: If you don't know, I'll never send you to get eggs from the
shop. (McCosh 1976, 178)
Cause-Effect
50. If you threw a white ball into a black sea, what would it be-
come? -wet. (McCosh 1976, 181)
THE ACQUISITION OF RIDDLE COMPETENCE
Though research is still in its early stages, we have found that youngsters
do not learn to riddle simply by memorizing and repeating set pieces. In-
stead, their competence proceeds through several stages and includes knowl-
edge of riddle production as well as of riddle interaction. Below, I review
this acquisition process and, reflecting the bias in the literature, focus on
urban American children.
MADE-UP ROUTINES
Youngsters acquire much of their knowledge of riddling in actual riddle in-
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? ? teraction. Some exchanges may be conducted with adults; most often, they
occur with peers. In American society, the peer group represents the single
most important laboratory for youngsters' acquisition and exercise of rid-
dling competence. 14
When exposed to older children's riddling, young children (of around
five years) notice question-answer sequences that call special attention to the
asker. Although they find this sort of performance appealing, young children
usually possess no ready stock of riddles to draw on. Wanting to participate,
they make up their own, trying to imitate those they have heard. As I've
shown above, riddles are based in common solicitational strategies. Young
children depend on these strategies in making up their routines. Among
McDowell's informants (1979, 59-68), the most frequently adopted strate-
gies were those of cause and effect and description:
Causality:
51. How come the pig likes to get in the mud ? -'cause he likes to
take a bath in the mud. (McDowell 1979, 245)
Description:
52. What's red and white, and doesn't do nothing, and has a stick
down its side, and the red and white thing is against the stick? -a
flag. (McDowell 1979, 245)
By far, descriptive routines (like that in no. 52) appear to outnumber those
based in other strategies (Weiner 1970; McDowell 1979).
Made-up descriptive routines enumerate the features or actions of
some object. " Often, the referenced object or some reproduction of it is
within the riddler's immediate environment. Like made-up routines based
on other strategies, those of description do not contain a block element. In-
stead, the ideal routine-according to peer group standards (McDowell
1979)-is accurate and transparent, its answer easy to grasp. The
respondent's correct answer signals that a "good" question has been asked:
53. What's big and has black stripes and white stripes? -a zebra.
(U. T. Children's Folklore Project, unpublished data)16
54. What's real big and it grows in the ground and it's got leaves
on it? -a tree. (U. T. Children's Folklore Project, unpublished data)
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? ? There is some evidence of cultural and regional differences in children's
made-up descriptive routines. With respect to cultural differences, we can
compare examples 53 and 54 above with those below. The former were
obtained from Austin Anglo youngsters; the following, from Austin Mexi-
can American children:
55. It's a little circle in your stomach. -belly button. (McDowell
1979, 244)
56. It's in a hole, what do you call it, in the zoo? -a guinea pig.
(McDowell 1979, 244)
Though children of both groups used solicitations phrased as interrogatives,
only the Mexican American youngsters in addition employed declarative
solicitations (nos. 55, 56 above). This suggests that children from different
cultural backgrounds may exploit linguistic resources differently in their
riddle-making. These differences are suggested when we contrast material
from the Austin youngsters (both Anglo and Mexican American) with ma-
terial obtained in Massachusetts by Meryl Weiner (1970). Like the Austin
children, the Massachusetts youngsters most often relied on the interroga-
tive format. The youngest children in Weiner's sample, however, occasion-
ally framed their descriptions as first-person statements. The riddler pretends
to adopt the identity of the person, place, or thing being described:'7
57. I have a tail. I have a body. I have a face. I am white and
black. What am I?
-a skunk. (Weiner 1970, 9)
This technique does not appear in the Austin material.
THE ACQUISITION OF RIDDLING COMPETENCE
The acquisition of riddling skills is essentially the acquisition of an artistic
competence.
Children just entering elementary school have mastered the
basic linguistic resources of their native tongue. They have a rudimentary
grasp of the cognitive systems in their culture. And, through their sponta-
neous play, they have gained practice with the "performance persona"
(McDowell 1979, 187). In learning how to riddle, children learn to apply
these acquired and developing competencies to the specific purposes of riddle
interaction.
Although a number of developmental schemes are available (for ex-
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? ? ample, Weiner 1970, Sanches and Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 1976, Sutton-
Smith 1976b; Wolfenstein 1954), that proposed by McDowell (1979) and
elaborated by Bauman (1977b) best suits our purposes here. In contrast
to the others, this perspective treats riddle acquisition as a social interac-
tional process.
During the initial stage in the acquisition process (around five years),
youngsters learn the basics of riddle interaction. Through observing and
participating, they learn that the poser of a riddle gains the floor, that the
riddle contains both a question and an answer, that the respondent should
be given a chance to guess, and that the poser should know the answer to
his own question (Bauman 1977b, 26). Guided by these observations and
stimulated by the riddles they hear from others, these youngsters make up
their own routines (as discussed below); they also learn that the respondent's
correct answer reflects positively on the riddler. By learning to present such
"successful" routines, young children increase their understanding of the
relationship between riddling and ego-enhancement.
At the second stage (around six years), children tend to modify their
views as to what constitutes a "good" riddle. Now they come to believe that
a riddle is a puzzling question with an arbitrary answer (Bauman 1977b,
27; Sutton-Smith 1976b, 115). Noticing that riddlers always seem to be right,
regardless of the esoteric sequences they come up with, children at this stage
are apt to initiate sequences like the following:
58. riddler: What color is blood?
respondent: Red
riddler: Nope, it's blue and black. (Bauman 1977b, 27)
"Potent elicitations" (Bauman 1977b, 27) such as this don't receive much
peer group reinforcement. Since the relationship between the question and
its answer is grasped only by the riddler (if indeed that), coparticipants aren't
motivated to encourage similar routines. Faced with losing respondents,
young riddlers once again modify their understanding of riddles. Though they
still regard riddles as confusing, children come to assume that riddles must
nevertheless be entertaining. As a result, they turn to the subjects of sexual-
ity and scatology. If they weren't aware of it before, they soon realize that
"dirt" sells:
59. riddler: What do you call people?
respondent: I don't know, what?
riddler: Doo-doo people. (Bauman 1977b, 27)
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? ? Toward the end of the second stage, children's interest in traditional riddles
begins to surface. This burgeoning recognition, however, outstrips the young-
sters' understanding of riddles' speech play. The children can't yet grasp all
of the linguistic and sociolinguistic complexities in the riddles they try to
repeat. As a result, some of their attempts are flawed:
60. What did the mean frog say to the nice frog? -"I hope you
crick" (instead of "croak"). (Bauman 1977b, 28)
As children enter and proceed through the third stage (of around seven
years), their production errors decrease markedly. Youngsters come not only
to recognize the riddle as a traditional form, they are also beginning to ap-
preciate it as such. As this shift is realized, the children increase their efforts
to learn and to produce riddles as preset pieces, with a stable question and
a fixed answer. The display of competence becomes a matter of demonstrat-
ing one's knowledge of riddles within the peer group. '8
In the final stage (at around eight years), children routinely succeed in
the use of traditional riddles. In effect, they have gained mastery of peer-group
riddling. The literature (Wolfenstein 1954; McDowell 1979) suggests that
children maintain an interest in riddling until about the age of ten or twelve.
After that time, they put their performance energies into other genres, allow-
ing their interest in riddling to decline. Since most mainstream American so-
ciety tends to regard riddling as a children's activity and thus as one inappro-
priate for adults except under special circumstances (Roberts and Forman
1972, 182), we might say that youngsters between eight and twelve have prob-
ably acquired as much competence in riddling as they will ever have.
Functions of Children's Riddling
Outside of the fact that it allows its participants to engage in social interac-
tion, there is perhaps no single, universal function of riddling. At the least,
riddle functions result from an interplay among the participants' perception
of situational circumstances, their combined and individual goals, and their
relative commitment to group and community standards. Documenting
riddle functions depends on in-depth fieldwork and the analysis of riddles
in individual communities, groups, and situations.
Below, I review some of the possible riddle functions based on the
factor of social interaction.
Several researchers (for example, Roberts and Forman 1971; Sutton-
Smith 1976b; Bauman 1982) have observed that in many urban groups rid-
dling is a way of engaging in, representing, and commenting on the processes
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? ? of questioning and answering. '9 Children have an interest in playing out and
playing with interrogative formats. For example, riddling models the kind
of interrogation that is ubiquitous in educational settings (Bauman 1982,
184). As a result, children's riddling may in part be an adaptive mechanism,
allowing youngsters to come to terms with the participant structures of
schooling. This perspective has several points that support it. Adult-child
interrogation is characteristic not only of classroom interaction but also of
interaction in the home environment. Parents routinely query children about
the children's activities. It is not surprising, then, that children are attracted
to an activity that allows them to serve in the role of interrogator. That role
allows children some access to power. The children also become the focus
of attention. And, in supplying the riddle answer, they enjoy "being right. "
As an expressive model of interrogation, riddling also permits young-
sters to manipulate the resources of communication. As I've shown, riddles
are based on common solicitational strategies. As framing devices, these strat-
egies serve as tools by which people orient and indicate their perceptions of
the world. In riddling, such strategies facilitate the exchange of information,
for example, by advising respondents of some of the cognitive and commu-
nicative work they are to do. Descriptive questions require that respondents
notice details and generalize from them. Respondents to classification ques-
tions must indicate the categorization of experience. Comparison-contrast
questions require information about similarities or differences in domains
of experience. To be sure, riddles counterpoint these familiar strategies with
a variety of disruptive techniques. True riddles have their block elements;
joking riddles surprise with humor, and parodic forms startle with nonsense
or victimization. These techniques complicate communication, whether the
respondent's task is to solve the riddler's question or to relate its answer to
assumptions of everyday life . The tension, however, is not irresoluble. The
enigma of a true riddle can be solved, the humor of a joking riddle can be
appreciated, and (except for the most drastic of the victimization forms) the
absurdity of a parodic riddle can be dismissed as inconsequential to every-
day concerns.
In concluding, I should point out that children are not likely to be
self-consciously aware of the functions summarized above. For them, rid-
dling is primarily a form of folk entertainment, one that also attests to the
participants' competence in peer group and community traditions.
NOTES TO CHAPTER EIGHT
1. Catch routines, soliciting either a verbal or a physical response, are treated
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? ? in Roemer 1977. The interactional organization and developmental acquisition of
knock-knock routines are discussed in Bauman 1977b. For an extensive collection of
knock-knock routines, see McCosh 1976, 204-12.
2. The riddle proposition is the "question" unit of a riddle. It may take the
form of an interrogative (such as riddle no. 35) or a statement (such as riddle no. 7).
3. Riddle act invitations are not unique to American children. Schapera (1932,
217) reports the following concerning the riddle invitation, proposition, and answer
in children's riddling among the Bakxatla of South Africa:
The question is framed in the formula: mpolelle dil6 o mpolallo xore. . . ke eng?
(Tell me something, what is. . . ? ), the actual riddle appearing in the body of the for-
mula. The answer follows simply: ke. . . (it is so and so). E. g. , mpolalla dil, o mpolelle
xore ntlo e tsweu ee senang mojak6 ke eng? Ke lee. (Tell me something. Tell me what
is the white hut which has no door? It is an egg. ) In practice, the formula is often wholly
omitted once it has been used with the opening riddle, and the bare question is set; or
else the word, mpolelle (tell me), is placed before each of the remaining riddles.
We might also note that English-language true riddle (no. 8) incorporates a
riddle act invitation ("riddle me") as part of its own rhyming structure. For an early
description of a riddle act sequence in a traditional Native American culture, see Jett6
1913, 182-84.
4. Riddlers who taunt respondents who don't know the riddle answer have
also been reported among Finnish children. In the first Finnish riddle collection,
Aenigmata Fennica (1783), Christfrid Ganander wrote: "Lastly, one takes note that
the young folks, boys and girls, test each other still at present with riddles in our prov-
ince; it is shameful if the other cannot answer three riddles, and they then send [her]
to the yard of shame (hapiapiha), and even wee children know still today how to say
to each other, if the companion cannot answer three riddles: 'Go to Hyvola; may the
dogs of Hyvola bark. Daughter, go to see who is coming there? A poor ragged girl all
dressed in rags. A mouse is her horse, a ladle is her sleigh . . . '" (italics added), cited
in Maranda 1976, 127.
5. Nor to my knowledge has anyone yet attempted such a comprehensive treat-
ment, one integrating the various levels of the riddles' construction.
6. Although these are not the only rhetorical strategies upon which riddles
draw, for reasons of space they must bear the burden of illustration here. One impor-
tant strategy omitted from this chapter is that of instrumentality (for example, "Why
did the man throw the clock out the window? -To make time fly" [Weiner 1970, 23;
see also McDowell 1979, 64-65]). The use of instrumentality in riddles is particularly
complex because it is is used strategically in both the riddle and the puzzle genres.
7. In its strictest sense, the term "Wellerism" refers to a quotation proverb such
as "'Every man to his taste,' said the farmer when he kissed the cow. " In British and
American societies, the pattern of Wellerism proverbs is attributed to the literary fig-
ure, Sam Weller, who frequently used such sayings in Dickens's novel, Pickwick Pa-
pers (1836-37) (Taylor 1949, 1169-70). On Wellerisms recorded in the English lan-
guage, see Mieder and Kingsbury 1993. Some folklorists have adapted the term
Wellerism riddle to describe forms like nos. 15-17. For additional examples from
children's tradition, see Opie and Opie 1959, 81-83 and McCosh 1976, 212-14.
8. Children's ethnic riddles and jokes are examined in Knapp and Knapp 1976,
191-205; McCosh 1976, 112-22, 226-55; Bronner 1988, 122-23, 292-94, n. 19.
9. And, of course, a visual sketch can be rendered in somewhat different ways
depending on the perspective of the individual riddler. What matters is that the sketch
presented accords with the eventual verbal answer. Ewa Ostergren (1983) has offered
sixty-six drawings that accord with the visual riddle answer "a giraffe passing a win-
dow. " The sketches were produced by Swedish schoolchildren from three different
classes. Of Ostergren's collection, Bengt af Klintberg (personal communication) has
commented: "What is interesting in [Ostergren's] study is that she makes clear that
the children learn the idea of the riddle and then visualize it according to their own
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? ? experiences. [In] other words, the Parry and Lord theory seems to be useful for
children's pictorial riddling! " (italics in the original). My thanks to Professor Klintberg
for making this information and a copy of Ostergren's collection available to me. Other
published versions of the "giraffe passing the window" sketch can be found in
Klintberg 1980, 193 and Roemer 1982a, 183.
10. Klintberg (1980, 198) also reports that analogous forms are known in
Germany (as Drudel) as well as in England. Relying on English and American data,
McCosh (1976, 217) provides what appear to be traditional solutions (nos. 646-49)
to visual riddle drawings. She neither identifies the statements as being part of such
pairings, however, nor does she provide the drawings.
11. For a South African (Bakxatla) version of riddle nos. 32-34, see footnote
no. 3.
12. Parodic forms often run in cycles. Some cycles popular since the early 1960s
have dealt with elephants, grapes, bananas, and dead babies.
? ? popular of these demonstrates these characteristics:
35. What's black and white and red all over? -a newspaper.
The ubiquity of the "newspaper riddle" (Barrick 1974) has fostered a range
of alternate answers: "a blushing zebra," "a skunk with diaper rash," "a
bleeding nun," "an integration march," and "an Afro-American Santa
Claus" (Knapp and Knapp 1976, 108; see also Weiner 1970, 37-38; McCosh
1976, 176-77; and Bronner 1988, 288-90 ff. ). With these answers, the hom-
onymic play in the question disappears and "red" is interpreted merely as
the name of a color. When coupled with an answer such as "a blushing ze-
bra," the interrogative shifts from the status of a true riddle question to that
of a question in a joking riddle (discussed below).
Routines that interfere markedly in their own interpretation can be
divided into two subgroups. Visual descriptive riddles and gestural riddles
inhibit deciphering by the very flexibility of their codes. Outside of the or-
thographic code, which visual descriptive riddles do not address anyway,
there exists no standard "grammar" for interpreting individual squiggles,
dots, and blotches inscribed on a page. A line may mean one thing in one
drawing and quite another in a second drawing. Furthermore, because it is
the riddle answer that gives significance to the inscription, a riddle with a
variety of answers can interpret its drawing in a variety of ways (for example,
no. 28). Similar points can be raised with gestural riddles, but there the re-
spondent must work not only with basically uncoded data but also with data
that are kinesic and therefore highly ephemeral.
Joking riddles are the second category of forms that are extremely
difficult of solution. To be sure, joking routines can differ in the quality of
their humor, but, generally speaking, the propositions serve primarily as a
setup for the punch line of the answer:
36. What is the worst weather for rats and mice? --when it's rain-
ing cats and dogs. (Leventhal and Cray 1963, 254)
37. What's tall and says eef eif [eof] muf? -a backward giant.
(McCosh 1976, 176)
THE PARODIC IMPULSE
Parodic forms are not so much a distinct category of riddle as they are forms
that extend the humor of joking riddles into absurdity and nonsense. Pa-
rodic riddles adopt the organizational strategies of more conservative forms.
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? ? What marks them as extensions is the degree of violence they do to assump-
tions of everyday life.
Parodic riddles are very popular among urban children, and various
researchers have commented on this fascination. Alto Jablow and Carl With-
ers (1965) view the riddles as safety-valve mechanisms that enable young-
sters to express their amused, angry, or frightened awareness of the fast-
paced, violent, and often irrational world in which they live. If the routines
are absurd and meaningless, Jablow and Withers argue, it is because urban
society itself reflects those characteristics (1965, 252-55). For their part,
Mary and Herbert Knapp (1976) agree that children may become connois-
seurs of chaos in buffering themselves against modern life. The Knapps,
however, also advance an alternate explanation. Urban children, they sug-
gest, have developed sophisticated tastes in their folk humor. Because pa-
rodic forms deal in ambiguity and nonsense, they speak to children's almost
insatiable fascination with complex and startling relationships (1976, 111).
Some parodic riddles can be used to challenge assumptions about
what is possible in the everyday world. We can understand how an answer
fits its question, yet what the riddle as a whole proposes is nonsensical given
a conventional understanding of the "real" world. If what these riddles sug-
gest were valid, we would need to reorganize our conception of the world
around us. Examples of parodic forms include the following:12
Description:
38. What's big and grey with a purple spot in the middle? -an
elephant hit by a Comanche grape. (Weiner 1970, 32)
39. What's green and flies from planet to planet? -an interplan-
etary cucumber. (Knapp and Knapp 1976, 110)
40. (Snap your fingers in the air several times, jerking your hand
up and down. ) "What's this? "-a butterfly with hiccups (or, a
drunk butterfly). (Leventhal and Cray 1963, 249)
41. FIG. A clam with buck teeth (Roemer, unpublished data).
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? ? Contrast:
42. What's the difference between unloading dead babies and un-
loading bowling balls? -you can't use a pitchfork to unload bowl-
ing balls. (Knapp and Knapp 1976, 111)
Classification/Definition:
43. What do you call a werewolf in a Dacron suit? --a wash and
werewolf. (Knapp and Knapp 1976, 110)
Effect/Cause:
44. Why do elephants have flat feet? -from jumping out of palm
trees. (McCosh 1976, 224)
Catch Riddles
Using metacommunicative techniques, other riddles violate the conventions
of riddling as a particular type of social exchange. No. 45 below challenges
the expectation that a riddler's question will provide information relevant
to the answer. Here, the respondents receive only part of the formulaic in-
formation characteristic of contrast riddles. Beyond that, the respondents are
on their own:
45. A: What's the difference?
B: Between what?
A: On this one I'm giving you no clues. (Jablow and Withers
1965, 249)
Other riddles are iconoclastic in other ways. No. 46 begins with a descrip-
tive question, the conventional way of initiating some of the most conser-
vative of English-language riddles. It concludes, however, by challenging the
assumption that riddlers know the answer to the questions they pose:
46. What's red, purple, green, yellow, gray, purple, sky-blue, and
green?
-I don't know, that's why I'm asking you. (McCosh 1976, 178)
A related surprise awaits respondents with no. 47. In addition to not sup-
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? ? plying a satisfactory resolution, the riddle threatens the respondent's assump-
tion of physical security:
47. A: What has six legs, fuzzy ears, and a long tail?
B: What?
A: I don't know, but there's one on your back. (McCosh 1976,
178)
In this and other catch riddles (Roemer 1977), the respondents are set up
for victimization. By cooperating with what they think is the first speaker's
intent, the respondents place themselves unknowingly in a vulnerable posi-
tion. The trickster capitalizes on this vulnerability at the riddle's conclusion:
Description:
48. What word starts with F and ends with CK? -firetruck.
(Winslow 1966c, 172)
Contrast:
49. A: What's the difference between an egg and an elephant?
B: I don't know, what?
A: If you don't know, I'll never send you to get eggs from the
shop. (McCosh 1976, 178)
Cause-Effect
50. If you threw a white ball into a black sea, what would it be-
come? -wet. (McCosh 1976, 181)
THE ACQUISITION OF RIDDLE COMPETENCE
Though research is still in its early stages, we have found that youngsters
do not learn to riddle simply by memorizing and repeating set pieces. In-
stead, their competence proceeds through several stages and includes knowl-
edge of riddle production as well as of riddle interaction. Below, I review
this acquisition process and, reflecting the bias in the literature, focus on
urban American children.
MADE-UP ROUTINES
Youngsters acquire much of their knowledge of riddling in actual riddle in-
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? ? teraction. Some exchanges may be conducted with adults; most often, they
occur with peers. In American society, the peer group represents the single
most important laboratory for youngsters' acquisition and exercise of rid-
dling competence. 14
When exposed to older children's riddling, young children (of around
five years) notice question-answer sequences that call special attention to the
asker. Although they find this sort of performance appealing, young children
usually possess no ready stock of riddles to draw on. Wanting to participate,
they make up their own, trying to imitate those they have heard. As I've
shown above, riddles are based in common solicitational strategies. Young
children depend on these strategies in making up their routines. Among
McDowell's informants (1979, 59-68), the most frequently adopted strate-
gies were those of cause and effect and description:
Causality:
51. How come the pig likes to get in the mud ? -'cause he likes to
take a bath in the mud. (McDowell 1979, 245)
Description:
52. What's red and white, and doesn't do nothing, and has a stick
down its side, and the red and white thing is against the stick? -a
flag. (McDowell 1979, 245)
By far, descriptive routines (like that in no. 52) appear to outnumber those
based in other strategies (Weiner 1970; McDowell 1979).
Made-up descriptive routines enumerate the features or actions of
some object. " Often, the referenced object or some reproduction of it is
within the riddler's immediate environment. Like made-up routines based
on other strategies, those of description do not contain a block element. In-
stead, the ideal routine-according to peer group standards (McDowell
1979)-is accurate and transparent, its answer easy to grasp. The
respondent's correct answer signals that a "good" question has been asked:
53. What's big and has black stripes and white stripes? -a zebra.
(U. T. Children's Folklore Project, unpublished data)16
54. What's real big and it grows in the ground and it's got leaves
on it? -a tree. (U. T. Children's Folklore Project, unpublished data)
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? ? There is some evidence of cultural and regional differences in children's
made-up descriptive routines. With respect to cultural differences, we can
compare examples 53 and 54 above with those below. The former were
obtained from Austin Anglo youngsters; the following, from Austin Mexi-
can American children:
55. It's a little circle in your stomach. -belly button. (McDowell
1979, 244)
56. It's in a hole, what do you call it, in the zoo? -a guinea pig.
(McDowell 1979, 244)
Though children of both groups used solicitations phrased as interrogatives,
only the Mexican American youngsters in addition employed declarative
solicitations (nos. 55, 56 above). This suggests that children from different
cultural backgrounds may exploit linguistic resources differently in their
riddle-making. These differences are suggested when we contrast material
from the Austin youngsters (both Anglo and Mexican American) with ma-
terial obtained in Massachusetts by Meryl Weiner (1970). Like the Austin
children, the Massachusetts youngsters most often relied on the interroga-
tive format. The youngest children in Weiner's sample, however, occasion-
ally framed their descriptions as first-person statements. The riddler pretends
to adopt the identity of the person, place, or thing being described:'7
57. I have a tail. I have a body. I have a face. I am white and
black. What am I?
-a skunk. (Weiner 1970, 9)
This technique does not appear in the Austin material.
THE ACQUISITION OF RIDDLING COMPETENCE
The acquisition of riddling skills is essentially the acquisition of an artistic
competence.
Children just entering elementary school have mastered the
basic linguistic resources of their native tongue. They have a rudimentary
grasp of the cognitive systems in their culture. And, through their sponta-
neous play, they have gained practice with the "performance persona"
(McDowell 1979, 187). In learning how to riddle, children learn to apply
these acquired and developing competencies to the specific purposes of riddle
interaction.
Although a number of developmental schemes are available (for ex-
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? ? ample, Weiner 1970, Sanches and Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 1976, Sutton-
Smith 1976b; Wolfenstein 1954), that proposed by McDowell (1979) and
elaborated by Bauman (1977b) best suits our purposes here. In contrast
to the others, this perspective treats riddle acquisition as a social interac-
tional process.
During the initial stage in the acquisition process (around five years),
youngsters learn the basics of riddle interaction. Through observing and
participating, they learn that the poser of a riddle gains the floor, that the
riddle contains both a question and an answer, that the respondent should
be given a chance to guess, and that the poser should know the answer to
his own question (Bauman 1977b, 26). Guided by these observations and
stimulated by the riddles they hear from others, these youngsters make up
their own routines (as discussed below); they also learn that the respondent's
correct answer reflects positively on the riddler. By learning to present such
"successful" routines, young children increase their understanding of the
relationship between riddling and ego-enhancement.
At the second stage (around six years), children tend to modify their
views as to what constitutes a "good" riddle. Now they come to believe that
a riddle is a puzzling question with an arbitrary answer (Bauman 1977b,
27; Sutton-Smith 1976b, 115). Noticing that riddlers always seem to be right,
regardless of the esoteric sequences they come up with, children at this stage
are apt to initiate sequences like the following:
58. riddler: What color is blood?
respondent: Red
riddler: Nope, it's blue and black. (Bauman 1977b, 27)
"Potent elicitations" (Bauman 1977b, 27) such as this don't receive much
peer group reinforcement. Since the relationship between the question and
its answer is grasped only by the riddler (if indeed that), coparticipants aren't
motivated to encourage similar routines. Faced with losing respondents,
young riddlers once again modify their understanding of riddles. Though they
still regard riddles as confusing, children come to assume that riddles must
nevertheless be entertaining. As a result, they turn to the subjects of sexual-
ity and scatology. If they weren't aware of it before, they soon realize that
"dirt" sells:
59. riddler: What do you call people?
respondent: I don't know, what?
riddler: Doo-doo people. (Bauman 1977b, 27)
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? ? Toward the end of the second stage, children's interest in traditional riddles
begins to surface. This burgeoning recognition, however, outstrips the young-
sters' understanding of riddles' speech play. The children can't yet grasp all
of the linguistic and sociolinguistic complexities in the riddles they try to
repeat. As a result, some of their attempts are flawed:
60. What did the mean frog say to the nice frog? -"I hope you
crick" (instead of "croak"). (Bauman 1977b, 28)
As children enter and proceed through the third stage (of around seven
years), their production errors decrease markedly. Youngsters come not only
to recognize the riddle as a traditional form, they are also beginning to ap-
preciate it as such. As this shift is realized, the children increase their efforts
to learn and to produce riddles as preset pieces, with a stable question and
a fixed answer. The display of competence becomes a matter of demonstrat-
ing one's knowledge of riddles within the peer group. '8
In the final stage (at around eight years), children routinely succeed in
the use of traditional riddles. In effect, they have gained mastery of peer-group
riddling. The literature (Wolfenstein 1954; McDowell 1979) suggests that
children maintain an interest in riddling until about the age of ten or twelve.
After that time, they put their performance energies into other genres, allow-
ing their interest in riddling to decline. Since most mainstream American so-
ciety tends to regard riddling as a children's activity and thus as one inappro-
priate for adults except under special circumstances (Roberts and Forman
1972, 182), we might say that youngsters between eight and twelve have prob-
ably acquired as much competence in riddling as they will ever have.
Functions of Children's Riddling
Outside of the fact that it allows its participants to engage in social interac-
tion, there is perhaps no single, universal function of riddling. At the least,
riddle functions result from an interplay among the participants' perception
of situational circumstances, their combined and individual goals, and their
relative commitment to group and community standards. Documenting
riddle functions depends on in-depth fieldwork and the analysis of riddles
in individual communities, groups, and situations.
Below, I review some of the possible riddle functions based on the
factor of social interaction.
Several researchers (for example, Roberts and Forman 1971; Sutton-
Smith 1976b; Bauman 1982) have observed that in many urban groups rid-
dling is a way of engaging in, representing, and commenting on the processes
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? ? of questioning and answering. '9 Children have an interest in playing out and
playing with interrogative formats. For example, riddling models the kind
of interrogation that is ubiquitous in educational settings (Bauman 1982,
184). As a result, children's riddling may in part be an adaptive mechanism,
allowing youngsters to come to terms with the participant structures of
schooling. This perspective has several points that support it. Adult-child
interrogation is characteristic not only of classroom interaction but also of
interaction in the home environment. Parents routinely query children about
the children's activities. It is not surprising, then, that children are attracted
to an activity that allows them to serve in the role of interrogator. That role
allows children some access to power. The children also become the focus
of attention. And, in supplying the riddle answer, they enjoy "being right. "
As an expressive model of interrogation, riddling also permits young-
sters to manipulate the resources of communication. As I've shown, riddles
are based on common solicitational strategies. As framing devices, these strat-
egies serve as tools by which people orient and indicate their perceptions of
the world. In riddling, such strategies facilitate the exchange of information,
for example, by advising respondents of some of the cognitive and commu-
nicative work they are to do. Descriptive questions require that respondents
notice details and generalize from them. Respondents to classification ques-
tions must indicate the categorization of experience. Comparison-contrast
questions require information about similarities or differences in domains
of experience. To be sure, riddles counterpoint these familiar strategies with
a variety of disruptive techniques. True riddles have their block elements;
joking riddles surprise with humor, and parodic forms startle with nonsense
or victimization. These techniques complicate communication, whether the
respondent's task is to solve the riddler's question or to relate its answer to
assumptions of everyday life . The tension, however, is not irresoluble. The
enigma of a true riddle can be solved, the humor of a joking riddle can be
appreciated, and (except for the most drastic of the victimization forms) the
absurdity of a parodic riddle can be dismissed as inconsequential to every-
day concerns.
In concluding, I should point out that children are not likely to be
self-consciously aware of the functions summarized above. For them, rid-
dling is primarily a form of folk entertainment, one that also attests to the
participants' competence in peer group and community traditions.
NOTES TO CHAPTER EIGHT
1. Catch routines, soliciting either a verbal or a physical response, are treated
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? ? in Roemer 1977. The interactional organization and developmental acquisition of
knock-knock routines are discussed in Bauman 1977b. For an extensive collection of
knock-knock routines, see McCosh 1976, 204-12.
2. The riddle proposition is the "question" unit of a riddle. It may take the
form of an interrogative (such as riddle no. 35) or a statement (such as riddle no. 7).
3. Riddle act invitations are not unique to American children. Schapera (1932,
217) reports the following concerning the riddle invitation, proposition, and answer
in children's riddling among the Bakxatla of South Africa:
The question is framed in the formula: mpolelle dil6 o mpolallo xore. . . ke eng?
(Tell me something, what is. . . ? ), the actual riddle appearing in the body of the for-
mula. The answer follows simply: ke. . . (it is so and so). E. g. , mpolalla dil, o mpolelle
xore ntlo e tsweu ee senang mojak6 ke eng? Ke lee. (Tell me something. Tell me what
is the white hut which has no door? It is an egg. ) In practice, the formula is often wholly
omitted once it has been used with the opening riddle, and the bare question is set; or
else the word, mpolelle (tell me), is placed before each of the remaining riddles.
We might also note that English-language true riddle (no. 8) incorporates a
riddle act invitation ("riddle me") as part of its own rhyming structure. For an early
description of a riddle act sequence in a traditional Native American culture, see Jett6
1913, 182-84.
4. Riddlers who taunt respondents who don't know the riddle answer have
also been reported among Finnish children. In the first Finnish riddle collection,
Aenigmata Fennica (1783), Christfrid Ganander wrote: "Lastly, one takes note that
the young folks, boys and girls, test each other still at present with riddles in our prov-
ince; it is shameful if the other cannot answer three riddles, and they then send [her]
to the yard of shame (hapiapiha), and even wee children know still today how to say
to each other, if the companion cannot answer three riddles: 'Go to Hyvola; may the
dogs of Hyvola bark. Daughter, go to see who is coming there? A poor ragged girl all
dressed in rags. A mouse is her horse, a ladle is her sleigh . . . '" (italics added), cited
in Maranda 1976, 127.
5. Nor to my knowledge has anyone yet attempted such a comprehensive treat-
ment, one integrating the various levels of the riddles' construction.
6. Although these are not the only rhetorical strategies upon which riddles
draw, for reasons of space they must bear the burden of illustration here. One impor-
tant strategy omitted from this chapter is that of instrumentality (for example, "Why
did the man throw the clock out the window? -To make time fly" [Weiner 1970, 23;
see also McDowell 1979, 64-65]). The use of instrumentality in riddles is particularly
complex because it is is used strategically in both the riddle and the puzzle genres.
7. In its strictest sense, the term "Wellerism" refers to a quotation proverb such
as "'Every man to his taste,' said the farmer when he kissed the cow. " In British and
American societies, the pattern of Wellerism proverbs is attributed to the literary fig-
ure, Sam Weller, who frequently used such sayings in Dickens's novel, Pickwick Pa-
pers (1836-37) (Taylor 1949, 1169-70). On Wellerisms recorded in the English lan-
guage, see Mieder and Kingsbury 1993. Some folklorists have adapted the term
Wellerism riddle to describe forms like nos. 15-17. For additional examples from
children's tradition, see Opie and Opie 1959, 81-83 and McCosh 1976, 212-14.
8. Children's ethnic riddles and jokes are examined in Knapp and Knapp 1976,
191-205; McCosh 1976, 112-22, 226-55; Bronner 1988, 122-23, 292-94, n. 19.
9. And, of course, a visual sketch can be rendered in somewhat different ways
depending on the perspective of the individual riddler. What matters is that the sketch
presented accords with the eventual verbal answer. Ewa Ostergren (1983) has offered
sixty-six drawings that accord with the visual riddle answer "a giraffe passing a win-
dow. " The sketches were produced by Swedish schoolchildren from three different
classes. Of Ostergren's collection, Bengt af Klintberg (personal communication) has
commented: "What is interesting in [Ostergren's] study is that she makes clear that
the children learn the idea of the riddle and then visualize it according to their own
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? ? experiences. [In] other words, the Parry and Lord theory seems to be useful for
children's pictorial riddling! " (italics in the original). My thanks to Professor Klintberg
for making this information and a copy of Ostergren's collection available to me. Other
published versions of the "giraffe passing the window" sketch can be found in
Klintberg 1980, 193 and Roemer 1982a, 183.
10. Klintberg (1980, 198) also reports that analogous forms are known in
Germany (as Drudel) as well as in England. Relying on English and American data,
McCosh (1976, 217) provides what appear to be traditional solutions (nos. 646-49)
to visual riddle drawings. She neither identifies the statements as being part of such
pairings, however, nor does she provide the drawings.
11. For a South African (Bakxatla) version of riddle nos. 32-34, see footnote
no. 3.
12. Parodic forms often run in cycles. Some cycles popular since the early 1960s
have dealt with elephants, grapes, bananas, and dead babies.
