Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-s22k5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-13T13:11:48.576Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

New names for old things: the emergence of metaphoric language*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Ellen Winner
Ellen Winner
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Boston College and Project Zero, Harvard University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Criteria were devised to distinguish between literal and metaphoric word usage in early language. These criteria were applied to the spontaneous speech transcripts of one child between 2; 3 and 4; 10.15. All unconventional word uses were identified and were then scored as overextensions, anomalies, or metaphors. The majority of unconventional word uses proved to be metaphors. Moreover, a developmental sequence of types of metaphors produced was found: those metaphors predominant during year 2 were based on the pretend actions of symbolic play; those predominant at year 4 were based on perceptual grounds alone, without the support of action.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 6 , Issue 3 , October 1979 , pp. 469 - 491
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

[*]

This research was supported by a training grant from the department of Health, Education, and Welfare (2 TO1 MH06617-19) and by grants awarded to Harvard Project Zero from the National Science Foundation (BNS77-13099) and the National Institute of Education (NIE-G-78-0031). Poitions of the paper were presented at the Stanford Child Language Research Forum, April 1978. I thank Howard Gardner, Roger Brown, Jill de Villiers, Jerome Kagan, Margaret McCarthy, and John Macnamara for helpful comments on the manuscript. Address for correspondence: Project Zero, Longfellow Hall, Appian Way, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 02138.

References

REFERENCES

Anglin, J. (1977). Word, object, and conceptual development. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Aristotle, . Poetics. In McKeon, R. (ed.), The basic works of Aristotle. New York: Random House (1966).Google Scholar
Asch, S. & Nerlove, H. (1960). The development of double function terms in children: an exploratory study. In Kaplan, B. & Wapner, S. (eds), Perspectives in psychological theory. New York: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Bates, E. (1976). Language and context. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Billow, R. (1975). A cognitive developmental study of metaphor comprehension. DevPsych 11. 415–23.Google Scholar
Billow, R. (1977). Spontaneous metaphor in children. Unpublished paper, Adelphi University.Google Scholar
Bloom, L. (1970). Language development: form and function in emerging grammars. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press.Google Scholar
Bloom, L. (1973) One word at a time: the use of single word utterances before syntax. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Bond, B. & Stevens, S. S. (1969). Cross-modal matching of brightness to loudness by five-year-olds. PerceptPsychophys 6. 337–9.Google Scholar
Bowerman, M. (1976). The acquisition of word meaning: an investigation of some current conflicts. In Waterson, N. & Snow, C. (eds), Proceedings of the Third International Child Language Symposium. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Bowerman, M. (1977). The structure and origin of semantic categories in the language learning child. Paper presented at Burg Wartenstein Symposium No. 74.Google Scholar
Brown, R. (1973). A first language: the early stages. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cassirer, E. (1957). The philosophy of symbolic forms. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, E. (1973). What's in a word? In Moore, T. E. (ed.), Cognitive development and the acquisition of language. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, L. J. & Margalit, A. (1972). The role of inductive reasoning in the interpretation of metaphor. In Davidson, D. & Harman, G. (eds), Semantics of natural language. Dordrecht, Holland: Reidel.Google Scholar
Elkind, D. (1969). Piagetian and psychometric conceptions of intelligence. HarvEdRev 39. 319–37.Google Scholar
Fein, G. (1975). A transformational analysis of pretending. DevPsych XX. 291–6.Google Scholar
Fraser, B. (1977). The interpretation of novel metaphors. Paper presented at an interdisciplinary conference on Metaphor and Thought,University of Illinois, UrbanaChampaign.Google Scholar
Gardner, H. (1974 a). Metaphors and modalities: how children project polar adjectives onto diverse domains. ChDev 45. 84–91.Google Scholar
Gardner, H. (1974 b). The naming of objects and symbols by children and aphasic patients. JPsycholingRes 3. 133–49.Google ScholarPubMed
Gardner, H., Kircher, M., Winner, E. & Perkins, D. (1975). Children's metaphoric productions and preferences. JChLang 2. 125–41.Google Scholar
Gentner, D. (1976). Form, motion, and use in early word meanings. Paper presented at the Stanford Child Language Research Forum.Google Scholar
Gentner, D. (1977) Children's performances on a spatial analogies task. ChDev 48. 1034–9.Google Scholar
Gibson, J. J. (1975). The theory of affordances. In Shaw, R. E. & Bransford, J. D. (eds), Acting, perceiving, and comprehending: toward an ecological psychology. Hillsdale, NJ.: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Golomb, C. & Cornelius, C. B. (1977). Symbolic play and its cognitive significance. DevPsych 13. 246–52.Google Scholar
Goodman, N. (1972). Seven strictures on similarity. In Problems and projects. Indianapolis & New York: Bobbs-Merrill.Google Scholar
Goodnow, J. J. (1969). Effects of active handling, illustrated by uses for objects. ChDev 40. 201–12.Google Scholar
Guillaume, P. (1927). Les débuts de la phrase dans le langage de l'enfant. Journal de Psychologie 24. 1–25.Google Scholar
Huttenlocher, J. (1974). The origins of language comprehension. In Solso, R. L. (ed.), Theories in cognitive psychology. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Jakobson, R. (1956). Two aspects of language and two types of aphasic disturbances. In Jakobson, R. & Halle, M. (eds), Fundamentals of language. The Hague: MoutonGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, G. (1972). Hedges: a study in meaning criteria and the logic of fuzzy concepts. Papers from the Eighth Regional Meeting, Chicago Linguistic Society, 183–228.Google Scholar
Luria, A. R. & Yudovich, R. (1971). Speech and the development of mental processes in the child. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Miller, G. Images and models, similes and metaphors. Paper presented at an interdisciplinary conference on Metaphor and Thought,University of Illinois,Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
Nelson, K. (1974). Concept, word and sentence: interrelations in acquisition and development. PsychRev 81. 267–85.Google Scholar
Nelson, K., Rescorla, L., Gruendel, J. & Benedict, H. (1978). Early lexicons: what do they mean? ChDev 49. 960–8.Google Scholar
Piaget, J. (1929). The child's conception of the world. New York: Harcourt, Brace.Google Scholar
Piaget, J. (1951). Play, dreams and imitation in childhood. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Pollio, H. & Burns, B. (1974). The anomaly of anomaly. Paper presented at the Psychonomic Society Meetings.Google Scholar
Quine, W. V. (1969). Ontological relativity and other essays. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richards, I. A. (1965). The philosophy of rhetoric. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schwartz, R. (1978). Presuppositions and children's metalinguistic judgements: the development of the concept of life. Unpublished paper, University of Tennessee.Google Scholar
Thomson, J. & Chapman, R. (1977). Who is Daddy revisited: the status of two-year- olds' overextended words in use and comprehension. JChLang 4. 359–76.Google Scholar
Verbrugge, R. (1974). The comprehension of analogy. Unpublished doctoral dissertation University of Minnesota.Google Scholar
Vygotsky, L. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Werner, H. (1961). Comparative psychology of mental development. New York: Science Editions.Google Scholar
Winner, E., Rosenstiel, A. & Gardner, H. (1976). The development of metaphoric understanding. DevPsych 12. 289–97.Google Scholar
Wolf, D. (1976). The development of symbolization in diverse media. Second Annual Report to the Spencer Foundation.Google Scholar
Wolf, D. & Gardner, H. (in press). Style and sequence in symbolic play. In Franklin, M. & Smith, N. (eds), Early symbolization. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.Google Scholar