A Cognitive Analysis of Ekegusii Riddles

Abstract

This project study, A Cognitive Analysis of Ekegusii Riddles, is an analysis on the classification, conception and interpretation of Ekegusii riddles. The study also sought to establish whether the Gusii culture and context play a role in the conception and interpretation of Ekegusii riddles. Anchored in the Conceptual Theory of Metaphor as its theoretical perspective, the study opines that Ekegusii riddles fall into various categories or classes. However the study classifies Ekegusii riddles according to the nature of the item or object in the answer. Accordingly, the purposeful sample of sixty riddles that were obtained from Endabaro Endabasia by Bosire and Machogu (2013) were classified into those where the answer referred to: human body, animals, plants, insects, cultural objects and natural phenomena. The study contends that the answer exists prior to the image in the riddle challenge and that in conceiving the riddle, one first identifies some salient feature in an object which forms the basis of formulating the riddle. The answer and the image are in a metaphorical relationship. Metaphorical mappings of one domain are mapped onto another domain. This hypothetical relationship is represented as A IS B and B IS A. Whereas the challenger starts working from the answer to the image in the riddle, the solver or audience has to work from the image to the answer- both the challenger and the audience are constrained by culture and context.