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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
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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

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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.

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