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Alipour J, Ranjbar M. A metaphorical advantage for bilingual children? Understanding figurative meaning by L2 and L3 EFL learners. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2024; 51:339-358. [PMID: 36814400 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000923000065] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
This study compared school-aged monolingual and bilingual English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners in terms of understanding metaphors on recall, multiple-choice, and reasoning tasks. It also examined the relationship between cognitive capacity and understanding metaphors on different measures. A hundred and thirty Persian-Turkish early bilinguals and 122 monolingual Persian-speaking EFL learners took three different tests of metaphor comprehension and the Figural Intersections Test, a test of cognitive capacity. Bilinguals outperformed monolinguals in terms of cognitive capacity and understanding metaphors on two of the tasks, though with a small effect size. Furthermore, there was a significant positive relationship between cognitive capacity and the scores on the multiple-choice and reasoning tests, but not the recall test. Results suggest that bilingual L3 learners have an edge in understanding metaphors, reflecting a cognitive advantage.
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Almohammadi A, Gaskins DK, Rundblad G. Metaphor comprehension in the acquisition of Arabic. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2024:1-21. [PMID: 38263754 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000923000740] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/25/2024]
Abstract
Metaphors are key to how children conceptualise the world around them and how they engage socially and educationally. This study investigated metaphor comprehension in typically developing Arabic-speaking children aged 3;01-6;07. Eighty-seven children were administered a newly developed task containing 20 narrated stories and were asked to point at pictures that best illustrated the metaphoric expression. The results were examined through a mixed ANCOVA, testing the effects of chronological age, metaphor type (primary, perceptual) and metaphor conventionality (conventional, novel) on metaphor comprehension. Children could understand some metaphors just after their third birthday, and their comprehension increased with age. Children's performance was somewhat better on primary than perceptual, and much better on conventional than novel metaphors. These findings are discussed in light of conceptual metaphor theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 2008) and structure mapping theory (Gentner & Markman, 1997), confirming differences in the acquisition of different metaphor types.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alaa Almohammadi
- Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah21589, Saudi Arabia
- Department of European Languages and Literatures, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah21589, Saudi Arabia
| | - Dorota Katarzyna Gaskins
- School of Education, Communication and Society, Waterloo Bridge Wing, Franklin-Wilkins Building, Waterloo Road, SE1 9NH, London, United Kingdom
| | - Gabriella Rundblad
- School of Education, Communication and Society, Waterloo Bridge Wing, Franklin-Wilkins Building, Waterloo Road, SE1 9NH, London, United Kingdom
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Pouscoulous N. More than one path to pragmatics? Insights from children's grasp of implicit, figurative and ironical meaning. Cognition 2023; 240:105531. [PMID: 37611331 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105531] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2022] [Revised: 06/09/2023] [Accepted: 06/20/2023] [Indexed: 08/25/2023]
Abstract
Human communication requires impressive inferential abilities and mind-reading skills. To learn how to speak and become competent communicators children need both. The development of pragmatic abilities presents us with a puzzle. On the one hand, much evidence suggests pragmatics play a grounding role in early communication and language acquisition. On the other, preschoolers find linguistic pragmatic inferences such as implicatures, metaphor and irony difficult to grasp. Apperly and Butterfill (2009) maintain that there are two separate systems for belief reasoning: a simpler one and a more sophisticated one that develops later. Along this line of reasoning we might also expect there to be two separate kinds of pragmatic abilities: an early set using (among other things) the simpler Theory of Mind system, and a more sophisticated one appearing later in childhood and using full-blown Theory of Mind. I will argue there is no need to divide pragmatic abilities in such a way to bridge the gap between the pragmatic inferential skills found in toddlers and the difficulties observed in preschoolers. Evidence from the past two decades indicates that phenomena such as implicatures and metaphor (but not irony) can be understood earlier than previously established. Additionally, children's apparent struggle with specific pragmatic inferences might be better explained by factors independent from pragmatic competence, but which interact with it.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nausicaa Pouscoulous
- University College London, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, Chandler House, 2 Wakefield Street, London WC1N 1PF, United Kingdom.
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Gaskins D, Rundblad G. Metaphor production in the bilingual acquisition of English and Polish. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1162486. [PMID: 37599708 PMCID: PMC10434249 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1162486] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2023] [Accepted: 07/17/2023] [Indexed: 08/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Metaphor acquisition research has focused mostly on metaphor comprehension in monolingual children. Ours is the first study to examine metaphor production in young bilinguals. A quantitative method was employed whereby sixty-two children aged three to six, with English and Polish, were tested on their ability to produce primary (e.g., a long day) and perceptual resemblance metaphors (e.g., You're my sunshine) in response to elicitation tasks. A univariate ANOVA revealed that the main factors to affect the production of conventional metaphors in bilingual children are their chronological age and their verbal skills in both English and Polish. No significant effect was found for nonverbal IQ, metaphor type, or testing language. These results are discussed in the context of both Conceptual Metaphor Theory, which has been concerned with the study of primary (and other conceptual) metaphors, and Structure Mapping Theory, which has focused on the use of perceptual resemblance metaphors. Usage-Based Theory is brought in to explain lexical effects in metaphor production.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dorota Gaskins
- Education, Communication and Society, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
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Martinelli NN, Droit-Volet S. Development and relationship between the judgment of the speed of passage of time and the judgment of duration in children. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1160047. [PMID: 37275683 PMCID: PMC10232785 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1160047] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2023] [Accepted: 05/03/2023] [Indexed: 06/07/2023] Open
Abstract
This study examined the relationships between the awareness of the speed of the passage of time, the judgment of durations and experiential factors in children aged 4-9 years. They were asked to judge the duration and the speed of the passage of time for different intervals (second and minutes), and to rate their feelings (arousal, happiness, sadness, and task difficulty) during each interval. The results indicated that 8-9-year-olds' judgment of the passage of time is extremely flexible and context-dependent, representing the duration and/or the individual changes in subjective experience (emotion). In contrast, young children's judgment of the passage of time was not related to duration. However, their judgments were not given randomly. They judged that time passed more quickly when they felt happier and more alert. The passage-of-time judgment was therefore initially grounded in emotional and sensory-motor experience, i.e., in their perception of changes (acceleration and deceleration) in self-movement (successions of states and their extension). Therefore, duration judgment and passage-of-time judgment initially develop separately and are later combined when children understand the logical link between speed and duration.
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Kamber E, Mazachowsky TR, Mahy CEV. The Emergence and Development of Future-Oriented Cognition in Toddlerhood: The Contribution of Cognitive and Language Abilities. JOURNAL OF COGNITION AND DEVELOPMENT 2022. [DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2022.2149527] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
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Adler IK, Fiedler D, Harms U. Darwin’s tales–A content analysis of how evolution is presented in children’s books. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0269197. [PMID: 35830379 PMCID: PMC9278771 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0269197] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2022] [Accepted: 05/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
In science, certain theories led to a paradigm shift in human being’s approach to explain nature, such as the theory of relativity, the quantum theory, and the theory of evolution. The latter explains the emergence of biodiversity on Earth and all living beings’ relatedness, including humans. Accordingly, evolutionary theory is a central part of scientific literacy. However, scholars have demonstrated that misconceptions emerging in childhood hinder learners from grasping evolutionary processes. Implementing evolution in early science education could enhance scientific ideas as a basis for subsequent learning at school. Currently, children’s literature that deals with evolution is increasing and may enable more children to encounter evolutionary theory before entering school. This explorative study aimed to analyze how children’s books about evolution approach explaining this complex topic to young children in terms of covered contents, underlying concepts and use of language. We conducted (1) a text-based qualitative content analysis of 31 children’s books in the categories of organismal context, evolutionary principles, and misconceptions, and (2) a computer-supported content analysis of 33 word labels concerning (a) scientific terms and (b) verbs expressing evolutionary change. Although evolution is a universal concept, children’s books seem to promote specific contexts such as animal and human evolution. Even though the principle of selection requires an understanding of complex interactions between individuals and environmental factors, this principle was more frequent than the principles variation and inheritance. Phylogenetic history was covered more often than basic evolutionary processes, and evolutionary change was mainly mentioned at the species level over long periods. Besides, most books conveyed misconceptions such as transformationist, teleological or anthropomorphic reasoning. Consequently, books covering evolution may bias children’s first ideas concerning this topic or introduce unscientific ideas. Based on our results, we propose implications for early evolution educators and education researchers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Isabell K. Adler
- IPN—Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education, Kiel, Germany
- * E-mail:
| | - Daniela Fiedler
- IPN—Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education, Kiel, Germany
| | - Ute Harms
- IPN—Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education, Kiel, Germany
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Predicting Chinese Preschoolers’ Acquisition of Aspect Markers: A Corpus-Based Study. LANGUAGES 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/languages7020133] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
This study explored the patterns and predictors of aspect marker acquisition of Chinese preschoolers speaking Mandarin Chinese as their first language (L1). Based on a corpus drawn from 157 preschoolers from Beijing, China, this study set out to explore (1) the developmental pattern of aspect marker acquisition; (2) the interactional pattern between grammatical aspect markers and lexical aspects; (3) the production of temporal adverbs with aspect markers; and (4) the predictors of aspect marker acquisition. The main research findings included the following: (1) the Jonckheere–Terpstra test revealed an age-related increase in children’s production of aspect markers, and in particular, there was a significant increase in grammatical aspect markers and lexical aspect subclasses from age 4;6 (Year; Month) onwards; (2) the Friedman’s ANOVAs indicated that -LE was frequently used in combination with most of the lexical aspect subclasses, among them the achievement was the most frequently co-occurring subclass, while the activities came second; (3) a series of Chi-square tests showed that using temporal adverbs in combination with aspect markers became increasingly common among older children; (4) the hierarchical regression analysis identified children’s preschooling experience as a significant predictor of their early aspectual development, after controlling for the other variables.
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Ferreira C, Alegria R, Rocha JA. Metaphor and Irony comprehension in typically developing school children: a pilot study. REVISTA DE INVESTIGACIÓN EN LOGOPEDIA 2020. [DOI: 10.5209/rlog.64669] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
This study aimed to analyse irony and metaphor comprehension of Portuguese school age children and analyse some of their individual differences, investigating if such factors may play a role in the comprehension of these two language elements.
Two European-portuguese versions of stories from the instrument ‘Stories from Everyday Life’ were used to assess irony and metaphor comprehension in a sample of 30 children with 8 years in a Portuguese private educational institution. Individual differences (e.g., gender, number of siblings, parents’ educational levels and family history of speech and/or language disorders) were also considered.
Children were able to understand metaphors and irony, as previously observed in other studies (e.g. Dews & Winner, 1997; Özçalışkan, 2007; Özçalişkan, 2005; Özçalışkan, 2007; Stites & Özçalişkan, 2013 Pexman & Glenwright, 2007). Results regarding individual differences on children’s performances showed that: i) male children performed better in both stories; ii) two children who presented a family history of speech and/or language disorders obtained lower scores than their peers; iii) two children whose parents had lower educational level than other families of participants performed worse than their peers; and iv) children who had more siblings performed better in both stories.
Children’s performances on both stories were positively correlated. No significant gender differences were found regarding irony and metaphor comprehension, however, a slight advantage was found in male children. The number of siblings was positively associated with metaphor and irony comprehension. More research is needed to clarify the influence of developmental and social variables in metaphor and irony comprehension.
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Lee R, Hoerl C, Burns P, Fernandes AS, O'Connor PA, McCormack T. Pain in the Past and Pleasure in the Future: The Development of Past-Future Preferences for Hedonic Goods. Cogn Sci 2020; 44:e12887. [PMID: 32862446 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12887] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2019] [Revised: 07/21/2020] [Accepted: 07/27/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
It seems self-evident that people prefer painful experiences to be in the past and pleasurable experiences to lie in the future. Indeed, it has been claimed that, for hedonic goods, this preference is absolute (Sullivan, 2018). Yet very little is known about the extent to which people demonstrate explicit preferences regarding the temporal location of hedonic experiences, about the developmental trajectory of such preferences, and about whether such preferences are impervious to differences in the quantity of envisaged past and future pain or pleasure. We find consistent evidence that, all else being equal, adults and children aged 7 and over prefer pleasure to lie in the future and pain in the past and believe that other people will, too. They also predict that other people will be happier when pleasure is in the future rather than the past but sadder when pain is in the future rather than the past. Younger children have the same temporal preferences as adults for their own painful experiences, but they prefer their pleasure to lie in the past and do not predict that others' levels of happiness or sadness vary dependent on whether experiences lie in the past or the future. However, from the age of 7, temporal preferences were typically abandoned at the earliest opportunity when the quantity of past pain or pleasure was greater than the quantity located in the future. Past-future preferences for hedonic goods emerge early developmentally but are surprisingly flexible.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruth Lee
- School of Psychology, Queen's University Belfast
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11
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Burns P, McCormack T, Jaroslawska AJ, O'Connor PA, Caruso EM. Time Points: A Gestural Study of the Development of Space-Time Mappings. Cogn Sci 2019; 43:e12801. [PMID: 31858631 PMCID: PMC6916177 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12801] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2019] [Revised: 10/30/2019] [Accepted: 10/31/2019] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Human languages typically employ a variety of spatial metaphors for time (e.g., “I'm looking forward to the weekend”). The metaphorical grounding of time in space is also evident in gesture. The gestures that are performed when talking about time bolster the view that people sometimes think about regions of time as if they were locations in space. However, almost nothing is known about the development of metaphorical gestures for time, despite keen interest in the origins of space–time metaphors. In this study, we examined the gestures that English‐speaking 6‐to‐7‐year‐olds, 9‐to‐11‐year‐olds, 13‐to‐15‐year‐olds, and adults produced when talking about time. Participants were asked to explain the difference between pairs of temporal adverbs (e.g., “tomorrow” versus “yesterday”) and to use their hands while doing so. There was a gradual increase across age groups in the propensity to produce spatial metaphorical gestures when talking about time. However, even a substantial majority of 6‐to‐7‐year‐old children produced a spatial gesture on at least one occasion. Overall, participants produced fewer gestures in the sagittal (front‐back) axis than in the lateral (left‐right) axis, and this was particularly true for the youngest children and adolescents. Gestures that were incongruent with the prevailing norms of space–time mappings among English speakers (leftward and backward for past; rightward and forward for future) gradually decreased with increasing age. This was true for both the lateral and sagittal axis. This study highlights the importance of metaphoricity in children's understanding of time. It also suggests that, by 6 to 7 years of age, culturally determined representations of time have a strong influence on children's spatial metaphorical gestures.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Eugene M Caruso
- Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles
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Willinger U, Deckert M, Schmöger M, Schaunig-Busch I, Formann AK, Auff E. Developmental Steps in Metaphorical Language Abilities: The Influence of Age, Gender, Cognitive Flexibility, Information Processing Speed, and Analogical Reasoning. LANGUAGE AND SPEECH 2019; 62:207-228. [PMID: 29226757 DOI: 10.1177/0023830917746552] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Metaphor is a specific type of figurative language that is used in various important fields such as in the work with children in clinical or teaching contexts. The aim of the study was to investigate the developmental course, developmental steps, and possible cognitive predictors regarding metaphor processing in childhood and early adolescence. METHOD One hundred sixty-four typically developing children (7-year-olds, 9-year-olds) and early adolescents (11-year-olds) were tested for metaphor identification, comprehension, comprehension quality, and preference by the Metaphoric Triads Task as well as for analogical reasoning, information processing speed, cognitive flexibility under time pressure, and cognitive flexibility without time pressure. RESULTS Metaphor identification and comprehension consecutively increased with age. Eleven-year-olds showed significantly higher metaphor comprehension quality and preference scores than seven- and nine-year-olds, whilst these younger age groups did not differ. Age, cognitive flexibility under time pressure, information processing speed, analogical reasoning, and cognitive flexibility without time pressure significantly predicted metaphor comprehension. CONCLUSIONS Metaphorical language ability shows an ongoing development and seemingly changes qualitatively at the beginning of early adolescence. These results can possibly be explained by a greater synaptic reorganization in early adolescents. Furthermore, cognitive flexibility under time pressure and information processing speed possibly facilitate the ability to adapt metaphor processing strategies in a flexible, quick, and appropriate way.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | - Eduard Auff
- Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Austria
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McAfee CA, Wyckoff EP, Choe KS. Children's psycho-spatial understanding of affect-based time: The developmental trajectories of ego- and event-moving perspectives. INFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT 2018. [DOI: 10.1002/icd.2100] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Ciara A. McAfee
- Department of Clinical Psychology; University of Texas at Austin; Austin Texas USA
| | - Emily P. Wyckoff
- Department of Psychological Sciences; University of Connecticut; Storrs Connecticut USA
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Falkum IL, Recasens M, Clark EV. "The moustache sits down first": on the acquisition of metonymy. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2017; 44:87-119. [PMID: 26781847 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000915000720] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
This study investigates preschoolers' ability to understand and produce novel metonyms. We gave forty-seven children (aged 2;9-5;9) and twenty-seven adults one comprehension task and two elicitation tasks. The first elicitation task investigated their ability to use metonyms as referential shorthands, and the second their willingness to name animates metonymically on the basis of a salient property. Although children were outperformed by adults, even three-year-olds could understand and produce metonyms in certain circumstances. Our results suggest that young children may find it easier to produce a metonym than a more elaborate referential description in certain contexts, and that metonymy may serve as a useful strategy in referring to entities that lack a conventional label. However, metonymy comprehension appeared to decrease with age, with older children tending to choose literal interpretations of some metonyms. This could be a result of growing metalinguistic awareness, which leads children to overemphasize literal meanings.
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Olofson EL, Casey D, Oluyedun OA, Van Herwegen J, Becerra A, Rundblad G. Youth with autism spectrum disorder comprehend lexicalized and novel primary conceptual metaphors. J Autism Dev Disord 2015; 44:2568-83. [PMID: 24803369 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-014-2129-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulty comprehending metaphors. However, no study to date has examined whether or not they understand conceptual metaphors (i.e. mappings between conceptual structures), which could be the building blocks of metaphoric thinking and understanding. We investigated whether 13 participants with ASD (age 7;03-22;03) and 13 age-matched typically developing (TD) controls could comprehend lexicalized conceptual metaphors (e.g., Susan is a warm person) and novel ones (e.g., Susan is a toasty person). Individuals with ASD performed at greater than chance levels on both metaphor types, although their performance was lower than TD participants. We discuss the theoretical relevance of these findings and educational implications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric L Olofson
- Wabash College, 301 W Wabash Ave, Crawfordsville, IN, 47933, USA,
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