A Lexico-Syntactic Analysis of Urdu Riddles

Abstract

This study aims to identify the Lexi-co-Syntactic patterns along with their functions in Urdu riddles in the framework of Alabi (2007) for stylistic analysis. In order to achieve this aim, a qualitative and descriptive method was adopted for the study. The data were randomly selected from the weekly magazine ‘Jagmag moti', the Urdu riddles book 'Paheliyon ki dunia' and the internet.Forty-five Urdu riddles were analyzed under stylistic levels mentioned by Alabi (2007). In lexicon-Syntactic analysis of Urdu riddles, findings showed that language in Urdu riddles is skillfully manipulated through several lexicon-syntactic devices, including anastrophe, ellipsis, asyndeton,anaphora, epizeuxis, hyperbole, personification,synecdoche, simile, metaphor and archaic. It was found that Urdu riddles use these Lexi-co-Syntactic devices in order to confuse the listeners and to create an impact on them.