Changes in Metaphor Comprehension in Children

Polish Psychological Bulletin 40 (4):204-212 (2009)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Changes in Metaphor Comprehension in Children The aim of the study was to follow the implicit patterns in children's responses to metaphor describing human by means of a name of animal. The main problem in present study was: which traits of topic would be spontaneously used by children from three age groups? The study followed a quasi-experimental design. The subjects were 77 children from three age groups: 5;6-6;0, 8;0-8;6, 9;6-10;0. The dependent variable: the level of comprehension of 18 metaphors with vehicles from the animal domain and one topic - human. The variable was measured through individual Piagetian interviews. The study confirmed the hypothesis that the ability to activate metaphorical thinking in order to describe human attributes increases with age, with a turning point around 8 year of life. The traits mentioned by subjects could be classified into five categories: unambiguous evaluations, physical features, behavior, behavioral traits, dispositions and agency. Older children assigned more human dispositional traits, thoughts and preferences to the objects of metaphors. Younger ones often focused on the physical features of animals. With age, the tendency to give positive evaluations to the objects of metaphors increases.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,593

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

A Tale of Two Tropes: How Metaphor and Simile Differ.Catrinel Haught - 2013 - Metaphor and Symbol 28 (4):254 - 274.
Interactions of fathers and their children with autism1.Ewa Pisula - 2008 - Polish Psychological Bulletin 39 (1):35-41.
More about metaphor.Max Black - 1977 - Dialectica 31 (3‐4):431-457.

Analytics

Added to PP
2017-01-12

Downloads
13 (#886,512)

6 months
2 (#668,348)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?