MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION VU THI HUONG GIANG STRUCTURAL SEMANTIC AND REASONING CHARACTERISTICS OF ANIMAL AND PLANT RIDDLES IN VIETNAMESE Major: Linguistics Code: 9.22.90.20 SUMMARY OF THE DOCTORAL THESIS OF LANGUAGE Hà Nội - 2020 THE WORK IS COMPLETED AT: HANOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION Science intructor: Assoc Prof.Ph.D Nguyen Thi Luong Assoc Prof.Ph.D Pham Van Tinh Reviewer 1: Prof.Ph.D Hoang Trong Phien Ha Noi National University of Social Sciences and Humanities Reviewer 2: Prof.Ph.D Đo Viet Hung Ha Noi National University of Education Reviewer 3: Assoc Prof.Ph.D Ha Quang Nang Vietnamese dictionary and encyclopedia The thesis will be protected before the thesis dissertation committee The school met at Hanoi National University of Education in hours days months years The thesis can be found at the libraries: - The National Library, Hanoi - The Ha Noi National University of Education INTRODUCTION The reason for choosing the topic 1.1 Literature is the art of words The riddle is a kind of folk literature so this kind of text is made from the material of words So considering the characteristics of language of the riddle is contributing to affirming the value, role and uniqueness of this genre in the national literary life 1.2 Nearly one fifth of the treasure of Vietnamese riddles is the ones of fauna and flora, which are familiar to farmers These contains many original riddles that need to be explored 1.3 Many riddles are written texts However, riddle texts have a special structure compared to other cultural literature ones Along with that, the problem of nominalization of riddles in general, those of animals and plant in particular should also be more interested in research Moreover, because riddles not reflect things, objects, events, etc in the world as explicitly but referring to them in a “skew” way, in others, words, something is mentioned by mentioning “another” thing 1.4 Therefore, understanding riddles in the overall structure and meaning, reasoning is necessary to see the unique features of language of this genre as well as to decode the logic of thinking and the philosophy of language of riddles 1.5 So far, research into riddles in terms of linguistics is not very abundant No work has studied the structural, semantic and argumentative characteristics of riddles on animals and plants For the above reasons, we shall choose the topic: Structural semantic and reasoning characteristics of animal and plant riddles in Vietnamese to conduct as a PhD dissertation Research purposes and tasks 2.1 Purposes When carrying out this topic, we would like to: - Clarify the structural, semantics and reasoning characteristics of the riddle of plants and animals in Vietnamese to explore the uniqueness of this special type of text from a linguistic perspective - The unique of the structure, semantics and reasoning of riddles about animals and plants in Vietnamese can be pointed out; and we can initially make comments, point out the unique features of Vietnamese cultural thinking, thinking and philosophy through this puzzle segment - Initially point out the basis - the decoding mechanism to be able to solve riddles quickly, correctly and accurately 2.2 Research tasks To accomplish that purpose, the specific research tasks are as follows: - Applying research methods into the specific object investigation, forging research skills - Consolidating and systematizing theoretical premises related to the topic - Doing surveys, statistics, classification questions on animals and plants + Indicating structural characteristics of riddle text, modeling homogeneous structure commonly found in animal and plant riddles + Finding structural and semantic characteristics + Clarifying reasoning characteristics of the animal and plant riddles: characteristics of conclude, argument and some tactics to distract arguments from which the originality of structures, meanings, arguments of riddles about animals and plants in Vietnamese are pointed out At the same time, initial comments are given on the characteristics of thinking, cultural thinking, and Vietnamese folk philosophy through the animal and plant riddles Objectives and scope of research 3.1 Research objectives: due to the scope of the thesis and time limit, we only focus on understanding animal and plant riddles (based on the text because the riddle is a folk game realized with language) 3.2 Descriptive method: This method is used to describe structural characteristics, a number of similar structural models in riddles, characteristic meanings selected as descriptive elements… 3.3 Interdisciplinary research methodology - cultural studies This method helps us decipher the artistic intent and partly understand the perception of Vietnamese people through riddles about plants and animals Methods and tools of research In order to achieve the goals and tasks set out, we use descriptive methods, semantic analysis methods, interdisciplinary research methods and statistical and classification tactics; comparative tactics… 4.1 Discourse analysis We analyze, describe and contrast riddle texts (a special type of text) in order to find the features of structure of animal and plant riddles 4.2 Analysis and synthesis We analyses and statistics and summary of the data Then basing the semantic analysis, we denote the reasoning of animal and plant riddles in Vietnamese 4.3 This is an interdisciplinary approach to linguistics, culture studies, stylistics, prosody that help decode the artic and cognitive features of animal and plant riddles Outcomes of the thesis This is a systematic and intensive survey of linguistic characteristics: structural characteristics, semantic characteristics (nominalization) and reasoning characteristics of riddles about animals and plants in Vietnamese Theoretical and practical significance of the thesis Theoretically and practically, the dissertation has the following contributions: 6.1 Theoretically The thesis contributes to supplement and complete additional research results on riddles; contribute a new perspective on Vietnamese folk riddles from the perspective of linguistics (text, reasoning, object projection (facility), identification) The results of the thesis will contribute to strengthening the direction of the study of semantic structure, combined with theoretical research for a specific type of discourse, the riddle in Vietnamese 6.2 Practicality The results of the project will contribute to improving the compilation of Vietnamese textbooks for high school students (especially in the context that the Ministry of Education and Training is developing a program and compiling a new set of Literature books) , textbook of teaching Vietnamese, serving for linguistics training at bachelor's and postgraduate levels, compiling reference books for analytical lectures in schools In addition, the results of the thesis are of useful value, good service in teaching research, exploring puzzles in particular, folk literature in general from the linguistic perspective The thesis will be a reference for those who want to learn more about this unique genre of folk literature Thesis structure In addition to the introduction, conclusions, references, appendices, indexes, lists of published works, the content of the thesis is implemented on three chapters: Chapter 1: An overview of research situation and theoretical background Chapter 2: Structural and sematic features of animal and plant riddles in Vietnamese Chapter 3: Reasoning characteristics of animal and plant riddles in Vietnamese CHAPTER AN OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH SITUATION AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Overview of research situation 1.1.1 Research works of riddles in terms of literature From the perspective of literature, riddles become an object to be recognized, explored in comparison with other types of cultural literature The authors Đinh Gia Khánh, Võ Quang Nhơn, Chu Xuân Diện in the textbooks "Vietnamese Folk Literature" have raised the most general features of the object such as content characteristics and functions of riddles as well as its position in the spiritual life of the people In addition, in a number of MA's and BA's theses, riddles have also been studies in terms of literature In general, riddles seen from a literary perspective have been explored quite comprehensively and systematically Researchers have devoted a lot to understanding and identifying riddles from the nature, origin and function to the production and use environments 1.1.2 The study of riddles in terms of linguistics Some works on Vietnamese linguistics that are sporadic find out about different similarities, in terms of presuppositions, referential expressions, cognition, rhetorical measures in the riddle) No author has assumed that the riddles is a special type of text and studied all its manifestations (composition, semantics, reasoning) as a complete text, a special text Thus, so far, research into animal and plant riddles have mainly exploited from the perspective of folk literature Studying this genre from the perspective of linguistics has not been fully and thoroughly exploited 1.2 Theoretical background In this section, we systematize some theoretical issues related to the topic: The riddle theory (from a literary and linguistic perspectives), text theory, nominalization theory and theory of reasoning Riddles are seen from the perspective of literature (in terms of concepts, genre characteristics, functions), from a linguistic perspective (a special text) In terms of text theory, we go into the concepts of text types, text structure, characteristics of text and text cohesion Regarding nominalization theory, we explore the concept, the basis of nominalization and peculiarities of thinking, culture, language in nominalization Argument theory focuses on the concepts of argument formulas, composition of arguments, reasoning relationships, classifications of arguments, reasoning and reasoning The above theoretical issues are the background for the study associated with the specific objects in the next chapters 1.2.1 Riddles and their characteristics 1.2.1.1 Concept For the dissertation author, the riddle is a type of folk literature It has a complete content presented with a peculiar language indicating creative thinking of the riddler Because the name of the riddled object is always hidden, the solver has to use reasoning ability so s/he can decode unknowns encoded with language in the riddle 1.2.1.2 Featured i Riddle - an intellectual game with words Recreational functions ii Riddle - a special problem 1.2.1.3 Function i Cognitive function ii Educational function iii Entertainment function 1.2.2 Several linguistic theories have been selected as the theoretical basis of the thesis 1.2.2.1 Theories of Text The theory consists of many issues In this dissertation, we present only what is related in order to investigate the characteristics of structural and sematic of the riddle text: Conceptualization, peculiarities, structures and cohesion i Concept From the conceptualization of text by some linguists in the world and Vietnam, we follow the points of Trần Ngọc Thêm that “Text is a complete uniform entity in content and in form” [110, page 43] It is a complete unit of communication ii Peculiarities First, text has to be complete in meaning (content): It has to have a certain theme Second, text has to be complete in form Third, in order to be complete in form and content, text has to have cohesion (formal/content cohesion) iii Textual structure (general formation of text) In their works, such authors as Diệp Quang Ban, Trần Ngọc Thêm, agree that a text has three parts: opening, body and ending In this dissertation, we use the theory of textual formation to explore structural formation of a riddle and find special features in this type of text iv Textual cohesion Textual cohesion consists of cohesion in form and in meaning (content) Cohesion in content includes: Theme cohesion: This is referred to as a topic: what to be mentioned This kind of cohesion requires all sentences in the whole text to move around a topic (By keeping or developing the topic) Logical cohesion: “known, first of all, as the part showing the peculiarities of something/somebody mentioned” I5, page 550) That is the reasonable link between something/somebody and their peculiarities in a sentence and between these peculiarities and other peculiarities among sentences in cohesion In this dissertation, we not study formal cohesion but explore content cohesion of riddles and nominalization when studying topics reflected (in the solution) and the peculiarities for describing riddled objects (through riddles) 1.2.2.2 Theories of Denotation, Reference i Denotative theory, expressions and meaning (referent) For Đỗ Hữu Châu, “The relation between utterances (discourse) and the elements that create a context is called “referent, also denotation) [17, page 186) Thus, referential/denotative meaning is things that are referred to or signified The referential meaning of the riddle is the thing that is riddled (the solution) ii Referential theory and referring expressions Reference and referring expressions are devices for linking texts 1.2.2.3 Theory of nominalization i Conceptualization Mai Ngọc Chừ suggests that the way of understanding nominalization is “ the terms that can be used to name things, phenomena, activities, qualities, relations,…in the world.[22,page 195) ii Base for nominalization: without reasons (arbitrary) and with reasons (nonarbitrary) iii Nominalization ways: In/direct nominalization v Peculiarities of thinking, culture and language in nominalization Language and culture have a close relationship Nominalization shows human thinking ability of cognition, culture of the objective world Animal and plant riddles are an interesting way of speaking-a type of defining things according to folk thinking (i.e second level nominalization) that brings a new and unexpected view of things and phenomena that are inherently familiar to people Accordingly, we can see observation skills, intelligence and sensible speculations of working people The theory of nominalization is used to investigate the features chosen as descriptive elements-part 2.2 page 1.2.2.4 Theory of reasoning i Conceptualization of reasoning In “Đại cương ngôn ngữ học” (General linguistics), Đỗ Hữu Châu argues “Reasoning is showing arguments in order to lead listener to a conclusion or an acceptance of conclusion by the speaker”[15, page 155] In spite of different expressions, linguists agree to the nature of reasoning that is showing arguments (evidence and reasons) to orient the reader/listener to a conclusion Evidence makes people believe, reasons make people understand When they have once believed and understood, they are persuaded,, then reasoning is well-done ii The structure of reasoning We agree to Đỗ Hữu Châu’s viewpoint that full reasoning has two parts: arguments (i.e premises of reasoning that can be reasons or evidence) and conclusion (what comes from premises, proved by premises) iii.Reasoning relation For Đỗ Hữu Châu, it is the relation between the parts of an argument.” There are arguments with either same direction or reverse direction iv Reasoning background It is what people rely on to launch arguments and then arrive at conclusions Referring to reasoning background is talking about “common sense” 1.3 Chapter conclusion The riddle as a product of folklore has been studied and approached in two directions: literature and linguistics Approaching from the literary aspect, there are general riddle studies (mainly collection and compilation nature), there are riddle studies for specific subjects In terms of linguistics, the authors have focused on the rhetorical measures in riddles (puns, metaphors, etc.), studying the semantics of riddles, studying pragmatics of riddles ( projection of object description ) However, from the linguistic approach, there has not been a comprehensive study of the total expression of riddles from structure, semantics to arguments as a complete text, nor has there been a study that shows the mechanism of deciphering the riddle from its form as well as its content The study of riddles is mainly a collection and compilation Some in-depth studies only stop at a few aspects (descriptive referential expressions, descriptive art, puns, etc.) So far, the riddle has been studied from a literary and linguistic perspective, but there has not been any work in depth to understand the riddle of plants and animals - as a special text on all three aspects: semantic, structural and reasoning characteristics Diep Quang Ban's theory of text (specifically the theory of textual structure) is the premise for us to explore the structural characteristics of the riddle text of animals and plants in Vietnamese, thereby pointing out general characteristics and structural characteristics of this particular type of document Do Huu Chau's theory of object projection, the logical link of Diep Quang Ban, identification theory is the basis for us to study the semantic characteristics of riddles of animals and plants in Vietnamese (the topics are reflected and the method of implementation, the characteristics selected as the element description and the method of description) Do Huu Chau's theoretical theory (specifically, the components of argument, structure of argument, basis of argument) is the theoretical basis that helps us to understand the characteristics of animals and plants riddles in Vietnamese 13 Table 2.9 Topics in the solution of Vietnamese plant riddlest STT Topics in the solution of plant riddles Frequency/636 Ration (%) Tree, grass 287 45, Tuber, fruit, seed 258 40,6 Flower, leave 91 14, It is clear that plant riddles describe a Vietnamese agriculture of Vietnamese inhabitants in a true and lively way The diversity of animals and plants also give us a picture of food of the Vietnamese: mainly rice, vegetables or animal that are easily found are eaten in the meal, and the state of food are made mainly from the source of animals and plants in nature 2.2.1.2 Riddles-introduciton, development of text topic In a three part text, the opening often introduce in a general way of the text topic with nouns (con/fruit,cây/tree) and the topic is then developed in the body with the linguistic factors of text If we consider the above topics to be the big ones, one riddle is a subtopic of that topic The uniform of topic (the name of riddled things – solution) is realized with a series of nouns in relation That is, for animal riddle texts, the riddler often describe such body parts as hands, legs/feet, ears,eyes, head,…For plant riddle texts, the riddler often describe the types of trees, flowers, leaves, tubers, seeds, They can be described as whole or just their parts such as the plant body, branch, petal, peel, tuber color, root,… 2.2.2 Topic deployment for animal and plant riddles in Vietnamese The semantic peculiarities of riddles are seen as those used to orient the reference to the object 2.2.2.1 Feature chosen to be descriptive elements i The general feature chosen to be descriptive elements in animal and plant riddles in Vietnamese Through surveys and statistics, we find 13 feature chosen as descriptive elements for both animal and plant riddles 14 Table 2.10 Descriptive elements of animal riddles in Vietnamese No Descriptive elements Animal riddles Plant riddles Total number Formation 53 78 131 shape, size 51 53 104 Color 55 59 function,role 10 29 39 Living position 16 23 Time appearance 13 21 Smell 18 21 Position, specific state 15 19 Name 13 10 Protection react 12 11 Price 12 Quantity 13 Human effect ii The separate feature chosen to be descriptive elements in animal and plant riddles in Vietnamese a The separate feature chosen to be descriptive elements in animal riddles in Vietnamese Table 2.11 Separate descriptive elements of animal riddles in Vietnamese No Descriptive elements Riddle number Routines, ways of living 18 Transport means 17 Sounds Instinct Reproduction 6 Personality Bad influences Food, food earning time, ways and speeds of hunting Sức mạnh 15 b The separate feature chosen to be descriptive elements in plant riddles in Vietnamese In addition to the common characteristics, plant riddles still have some separate ones to describe: moments of blooming, smelling, using,… Table 2.12 Separate descriptive elements of plants riddles in Vietnamese No Descriptive elements Riddle number Ways of using, cooking, preserving 16 Tastes 12 Part positions 10 Time of blooming and smelling Ways of sowing and caring Living energy Time of using and ways of harvesting These separate characteristics are the hints to help identify groups of things for us to decode the riddle more quickly and faster 2.2.2.2 Cách thức miêu tả đặc điểm In addition, riddles can describe riddles things directly or indirectly Table 2.13.Ways of describing riddled things in animal and plant riddles in Vietnamese No Ways of describing riddled things Number Ratio (%) Direct desciption of riddled things 274 24,4 Indirect desciption of riddled things 850 75,6 i Direct desciption of riddled things: The riddler reflects the things with proper features of descriptive elements (riddles), showing the peculiarities of riddled things (solutions), in other words, these peculiarities lies in riddled things ii InDirect desciption of riddled things: That is the definition of riddled things according to folk thinking not to common definitions as in dictionaries 2.3 Chapter conclusion The riddle is a special text in structure because most riddles not have enough parts (opening, body, ending) as a common text Particularly, the ending is always an implcation, only appearing when the solver has once found the solution In many cases, subjects, conjunctions are elliptical to make a compression for the riddles to make more difficulty for the solver Additionally, the riddles is special about its similar models of structure 16 The semantic peculiarities of riddle are understood as the ones in riddles to orient reference to the riddled thing Through the solution-referential meaning, the world of animals and plants appears extremely abundant and diverse with species of animals, close to people's life The person who offers the riddle can give the essential characteristics, true to the object itself, create the logical link in the directly description (direct nominalization) or put a new color on the riddled thing (indirect nominalization) This is the basis to help recognize the riddled thing and show the thinking of Vietnamese people that they often rely on outer characteristics, easlily found, of the riddled things In addition the model of common similar grammatical structure, the decriptive elements that are used for both animal and plant riddles, they have separate characteristic models of their own that are attached to each other From the semantic and structural characteristics of animal and plan riddles in Vietnamese, we can find an interesting thing that sometimes more than one solution can be used for the same riddle, that is, a text can refer to many riddled things and vice versa, a thing can be observed in many aspects and described in many ways by the riddler to make different texts That makes the riddle familiar but strange, strange but familiar CHAPTER REASONING CHARACTERISTICS OF ANIMAL AND PLANT RIDDLES IN VIETNAMESE Reasoning is a verbal act in close relation to comunication Riddling-solving is a communicative action so its reasoning needs to be studied Moreover, riddle text is logical one so its reasoning is very important for to form logic, common sense and folk philosophy And, in the riddles containing indirect description of riddled things, the riddler use distracted reasoning for his/her own creative thinking For this chapter, we utilize Đỗ Hữu Châu’s theories of concept, formation of reasoning, referential meaning in order to investigate the characteristics of parts and structure of reasoning Then we use them for studying the reasoning of animal and plant riddles in Vietnamese Exploring the reasoning of animal and plant riddles in Vietnamese, we aim to show original feartures of reasoning of this special type of text Accordingly, the dissertation can contribute to decoding folk thinking through riddles 17 3.1 Characteristics of reasoning parts in animal and plant riddles in Vietnamese 3.1.1 Characteristics of the ending parts in animal and plant riddles in Vietnamese 3.1.1.1 Characteristics of quantity (quantity of parts, quantity of riddled things) Conclusion (solution) of animal and plant riddles in Vietnamese can show one or some riddled things Through surveys and stattistics, we find of 1124 riddles of animals and plants, most of their conclusion contains only one riddled thing (1019 sentences, occupying 90,6 %), 105 sentences (9,4 %) the conclusions with many riddled things Table 3.1 Number of riddled things of riddles of animal and plant riddles in Vietnamese No Number of riddled things Riddle number Ration (%) Conclusions with one riddled thing 1019 90,6 Conclusions with two riddled things and more 105 9,4 Of 105 riddles with riddled things and more, most of them are the ones with two riddled things, occupying 86 sentences (82 %) 3.1.1.2 Semantic characteristics Conclusion (solution) is referential meaning (riddled thing) They are usually the ones in close relation 3.1.2 Characteristics of the parts of reasoning in animal and plant riddles in Vietnamese 3.1.2.1 Characteristics of quantity Reasoning in riddles is mainly descriptive reasoning One descriptive content (descriptive elements) is regarded as an argument The riddler can describe some characteristics of the riddled thing, thus the quantity of arguments are at least of two or more than two Table 3.2 Quantity of arguments in riddle reasoning of animals and plants No Number of reasoning in a riddle Riddle number Ratio(%) Two arguments 120 10,7 Two arguments and over 1004 89,3 For each type, we have specific descriptions and demonstrations For a reasoning with two arguments one of which is defined for the riddled thing (Câytree/hoaflower/quả/fruit ), referring is easier 18 The quantity of arguments with two or more than two is the hints to slve the riddle However, in fact, how successful the effect of reasoning and referring does not depend on the quantity of arguments but on how the riddler selects, describe the signs of the things that are the arguments for reasoning 3.1.2.2 Semantic characteristics i For the riddle with direct description: explicit description of inherent characteristics of the riddled thing ii For the riddle with direct description: Also description of animal and plant but the riddler takes the solver to a verbal trap in order to distract the solver, making the solver think, discuss in order to understand the riddler’s message 3.2 Structure of reasoning of animal and plant riddles in Vietnamese Due to the fact that the conclusion of the riddle is always implicit, i.e in a hidden or unspoken state (just “appear” once the solver has found the solution of te riddle, we mainly rely on the appearance of arguments, considering the structure of reasoning of riddles Table 3.3 Structure of reasoning of animal and plant riddles in Vietnamese No Structure of reasoning Riddle number Ratio (%) Explicit structure of reasoning 90 Implicit structure of reasoning 1034 92 3.2.1 Explicit structure of reasoning The riddle with explicit structure of reasoning (explicit arguments) is the structure of reasoning with fully present arguments The structure of reasoning appears in the riddles with available nouns denoting “species” (con/animalcây/tree/hoa/flower/quả/fruit/củ/tuber ) going together with interrogative wordsgì (what),chi (what), (Which) Because it has to hide the riddled things, this structure is not abundant (90/1124 sentence, 8%) For the riddles with the explicit reasoning, the riddled thing has already been defined with the “type” (animal or plant) 3.2.2 Implicit structure of reasoning The riddle with implicit structure of reasoning is the structure of reasoning without direct arguments Due to having to hide the riddled thing, most riddles have this kind of structure reasonong (1034/1124 sentences, chiếm 92%) For those riddles, nouns denoting “species” and interrogative words not appear.They are hidden and the solver has to infer the object that must be guest in the riddle 19 For explicit structure of reasoning, riddled things (con/animal, cây/tree ) are “halfguiding”, for implicit structure of reasoning, riddled things are “secretly hidden”, it is the solver who define the object (either animals or plants) to decode the question 3.3 Reasoning background of riddles on animals and plants in Vietnamese 3.3.1 Common sense reasoning Riddles with common sense reasoning are the ones with direct description of inherent features, i.e a true description as in reality on the riddled thing In other words, those are obviuos characteristics of riddled things 3.3.2 Reasoning by separate creative thinking (not by logic or common sense) Animal and plant riddles refer to animal and plants in the world However, in order to “jam”, or/and distract the solver with reasoning, nouns calling riddled things are usually deleted, hidden and the descriptive elements are also disguised – indirect description with reasoning by separate creative thinking Table 3.4 Some forms of reasoning by separate creative thinking Riddle No Reasoning by separate creative thinking number Reasoning of field transference 491 Ration (%) 57,8 Reasoning of use of differences of truth, common sense 118 13,9 Reasoning of word playing (puns) 112 13,2 Reasoning of virtualization 83 9,7 Reasoning of depending on/inferring from other ideas 38 4,5 Reasoning of saying “vulgar” but meaning “courteous” 0,9 In the scope of dissertation, we just study some of the following types of reasoning: 3.3.2.1 Reasoning of semantic field transference In the referring expressions of riddles on animals and plants, the riddler ofter uses the word system of different fields from the ones of the referents in riddles (people, things, …) to describe the riddled thing (animals and plants), though they are suitable both for description and guessing thanks to similar relations Table 3.5 Ways of semantic field transference in the reasoning of riddles in Vietnamese No Ways of semantic field transference Humanization Materialization Plantization Animalization Naturalization Riddle number 393 61 19 14 Ratio (%) 80,0 19,6 3,9 2,9 0,8 20 Có phương thức dùng nhóm mà khơng dùng nhóm i Common semantic field transference used for both animal and plant riddles: Humanization, materialization ii Separate semantic field transference of animal and plant riddles a Field semantic transference of animals: plantization, naturalization b Field transference of plants: animalization In those riddles, despite the appearance of nouns denoting things, there is a change in those nouns (into metaphor of humanization, materialization …) to show riddled things vividly Then, the solver cannot base the original meaning of the noun to define the riddled object but has to infer according semantic change, and base the descriptive elements to find the referred things 3.3.2.2 Reasoning of use of differences of truth, common sense Through surveys and statistics, we find 75 riddles on animals and 43 on plants use this kind of reason i Reasoning of use of differences from truths A truth is obvious without being denied In order to make a distraction of reasoning, this type of riddles usually has reverse ways of speaing: denying – confirming through: Không/no X mà/but Y, with X but no Y, Không phải X/it is not X mà (có) Y/ but it is Y, ….(In which, X is a premise to Y, Y is a obvious result from X), X lại bảo Y/ X but speaking Y X nhưng/but Y (X, Y have reverse meanings) … ii Reasing of use of differences of common sense The riddle use this kind of reasoning often put the riddled things into illogical state without common sense or object rules 3.3.2.3 Reasoning of playing words (puns) It is the reasoning that uses similarities of sound, meaning, scripts, contexts, make interesting unexpected associations Table 3.6 Ways of playing words (puns) STT Reasoning of playing words (puns) Riddle number Ratio (%) Synonyms, near synonyms 84 75 Homonyms, near homonyms 28 25 Word - playing is a rhetorical measure that focuses on exploiting the phonological, semantic, literary and contextual similarities to create unexpected and interesting associations Here we only consider the riddle using the word play in a direct relation to it, not the case of the solution 21 3.3.2.4 Virtualized argument Virtualization argument is one of the tactics of misleading arguments by changing the concept (using a unreal objects to talk about real objects) or creating an unusual, virtualization of sound, image, of grammatical structure 3.4 Page conclusion A riddle is an argument that is the conclusion for the solution, forcing the solver to deduce to find out it is always hidden, not explicit and only appears after the solver finds the solution And the argument in the riddle offer data (clue) for finding objects In addition to the riddles that offer nominalization and directly describe the riddled object, helping the solver easily find the solution, the majority of the riddles about animals and plants are described indirectly The riddled object is familiar to people but the riddler offers strange/uncommon features to it with some tactics of misleading arguments; aiming to trap, fool the solver With these riddles, the solver are often placed in two meaning spaces: surface meaning and hidden meaning Riddlers often describe, express a situation on the surface of language on which another object is figure out Riddlers deploy a reasoning source based on a meaning transference to deceive the sover in many ways (field transference, illogical arguments, contra-arguments, puns, courteous image in vulgar riddle words, etc according to folk thinking A conclusion that is drawn is unlike a common one It is a deductive conclusion as conceptual information because it is the result of arguments, speculations and assumptions In order to decode an anonymous referent and find out its correct name of that “strange” and “familiar” object, it is necessary for both riddlers and solvers to be alert based on background knowledge, common “denominator”, imagination mobilization, deduction, analogic reasoning, logical judgment and knowledge of language 22 CONSOLIDATION As a unique linguistic phenomenon in the national cultural heritage, riddles retain the sustainable values of human thinking, soul and creativity With the topic “Structural semantic and reasoning characteristics of animal and plant riddles in Vietnamese”, by taking surveying, doing statistics and analyzing the source, we achieved the following results: In terms of structure, the riddles of plants and animals in Vietnamese are a special document because except few riddles, which have three parts as the structure of a normal text; most of them consist only of the body and the ending, especially the ending is always "hidden" In addition, the similar structure of riddles, according to tip patterns, is also a distinctive feature of this text type The meanings of the riddle are the total meanings of the statements The semantic characteristic of riddles is chosen as a descriptive element, which helps to orient the identification and reference of the puzzle objects And the meaning of the solution is the meaning of object reflection If the solution helps us to see a large, rich, colorful picture of the animal and plant world, the element of descriptions appearing in the riddle shows the vivid visual thinking, loooking into the appearance of animals, with the intelligence, observative ability, quick response of the makers The variety of riddles about the same thing reflects the perception of reality in a multidimensional view Beside the common characteristics selected as a descriptive element for both plants and animals with a different density, each group possesses its own characteristics This is the key, the important data, has been encoded difficultly This is also an interesting language problem The Vietnamese rationale on animals and plants is mainly descriptive, in which the conclusions (solutions) are always hidden and only come out when the solutionist finds an answer The number of arguments (descriptive elements) in a puzzle is usually more than one Effective argument does not depend only on the number of arguments but also on the characteristics selected as the prime description in the argument In addition to the explicit argument structure, the riddle also has a hidden function argument structure Beside the logical structure of reasoning, many sentences have the structure of reasoning according to the creative thinking of the puzzle (based on changing fields; puns; the difference with truth, common sense; virtualization ) Thanks to the 23 deviated text - the matrix of words, the puzzle is hidden Without thinking, reasoning, the solutionist is easy to fall into the trap of words, which have already been set in the riddle Vietnamese puzzles on plants and animals have unknown factors (because puzzles are often familiar plants, flowers, tubers) but there are hidden clues If the similar structure makes strange objects to be familiar, the reasoning structure based on creative thinking will make things strange That creates attraction for puzzles of plants and animals in particular and in general, doesn't it? Mechanism of decoding puzzles The beauty of riddles is the art of encoding The puzzle is encoded by object to object There is a question that how to make the coded object similar to the tested object without being exposed If the person giving the puzzle is the one who "encodes" then the person solving the puzzle is the one who "decodes" the text Based on the characteristics of structure - semantics, arguments of riddles on animals and plants in Vietnamese, we can come up with the mechanism of decoding the puzzle as follows: Firstly, based on the structural characteristics (form): For the puzzle texts that have both the opening, the body and the ending, the opening (to ask: what animail / tree ) is a very important suggestion, so that the solutionist can determine the puzzle of the animal or plant Based on the clues on the bosy of the riddle, the solutionist can refer to the object In addition to this, there are riddles without an opening The solutionist should pay attention to the nouns that appear in the puzzle: If the words that show the parts of the leg, hands, eyes, head, the riddle can be refered to animal; stems, branches, leaves, etc may be refered to plants Solving riddles that have the same grammatical structure model, if solutionists are not really alert and calm, they will easily fall into the trap of familiar but strange words set by the maker At first, hearing the familiar opening, the listener thought that the riddles about the objects he knew but that the same structure model was just a decoy trap After that the listener will be driven to another puzzle with other facts In addition to the general models used for animal and plant puzzles, there are models that can only be used for animal questions (the model shows the nature/ activity/ objective existence/ habitat / quantity ) There are models only used to puzzle about plants (position / statement ) These are also suggestions on the relationship between puzzle model and solution, which helps the solutionists to decode the problem 24 Secondly, based on the content characteristics: To be able to refer and correctly solve the puzzles, solutionists need to get rich knowledge To this, it is necessary to regularly observe and remember the characteristics of plants and animals;especially external characteristics, easy- identifing features Besides general characteristics, it is also necessary to pay attention to specific characteristics associated with each specific object, because these are also important clues to help solve puzzles: cries - animals, time to bloom, aroma - plants With directly describing riddles, explicitly the characteristics of the riddle, the solutionist needs only to link good descriptors to find the solution But with riddles that indirectly describe the characteristics, arguing according to the riddle's own creative thinking, the solutionist must be really alert, observant; use judgmental mind, manipulate logical thinking, deduce and deduce; manipulating imagination and ability to associate; combining experience, living capital, knowledge, rich background knowledge in all aspects of cultural and social life and nature with knowledge of language,literature to peel off each layer, decode, refer to the puzzle, find the hidden factors that is both familiar (strange) and strange (familiar) LIST OF PUBLISHED WORKS Vu Thi Huong Giang, A number of misleading tactics argued in the Vietnamese riddles about plants, Proceedings of the 2013 National Linguistics Conference, Faculty of Literature, Hanoi National University of Education, p 260 - 269 Vu Thi Huong Giang, Diversionary ways of argument in floral riddles in Vietnamese, Journal of Academic Dictionary and Encyclopedia, No (30), July 2014, p 68 - 72,78 Vu Thi Huong Giang, Some typical symmetric structures of Vietnamese plant – related, Language Journal No (302) / 2014, p 67 - 76 Vu Thi Huong Giang, The riddles of plants in Vietnamese from the viewpoint of semantics, Collection of Literature Studies (volume 2), Graduate Science Seminar in Literature - 2016, Faculty of Philology, Truong Dai Teacher of Hanoi Pedagogy, p 618 - 628 Vu Thi Huong Giang, Arguments in the Vietnamese riddles about plants, Proceedings of the Literature Research Project (Volume 3), Graduate Science Seminar in Philology - 2017, Faculty of Philology, Hanoi National University of Education , p 657 - 664 Vu Thi Huong Giang, Interrogative similar structures in Vietnamese riddles of plants, Journal of Academic Dictionary and Encyclopedia, No (50), 11/2017, p - 13 Vu Thi Huong Giang, Word - playing in Vietnamese riddles based on animals and plants, International Science Workshop: "Modern linguistic trends and language research in Vietnam", April 2017, Institute of Linguistics, Institute Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences ... groups of things for us to decode the riddle more quickly and faster 2.2.2.2 Cách thức miêu tả đặc điểm In addition, riddles can describe riddles things directly or indirectly Table 2.13.Ways of... Vietnamese dictionary and encyclopedia The thesis will be protected before the thesis dissertation committee The school met at Hanoi National University of Education in hours days months years The... to farmers These contains many original riddles that need to be explored 1.3 Many riddles are written texts However, riddle texts have a special structure compared to other cultural literature