Brkljačić, Marta.
(2017).
Meaning Construal in Old English Riddles.
Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of English Language and Literature.
[mentor Stanojević, Mateusz-Milan].
Abstract
This paper deals with the meaning construal in the Exeter Book Riddles, investigating
riddles through a linguistic analysis of form and content, in an attempt to explore and describe
their complexity from the primarily linguistic perspective, with an occasional comment on
literary, and some historical, cultural and philosophical aspects. The analysis of formal
categories revealed the following: a strong rule of alliteration and frequent occurrence of
anacrusis as fundamental features of half-lines, several metrical patterns with a clear
predominance of a single pattern, three different narrative principles expressing different
viewpoints (I-am, I-saw and There-is), variations in opening and closing structures
(X+VERB(+COMPLEMENT); imperative structure, ø – ending), a flexibility of word order,
an extensive vocabulary, some prominent syntactic structures (three different S-V positions,
prepositional and infinitive construction, negative particle construction, X-link-Y) and metastructures.
The analysis of content discusses riddle solutions (the majority of which turn out to
be objects), particular themes (such as power, independence, conquest) and motifs (such as
nature, or human hands), figurative language (personification, metonymy and the kenning),
and other poetic devices (namely vivid imagery, oppositions, and the servant-master paradox).
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