A series of four experiments was conducted to investigate preschool children's comprehension of metaphor in relation to cognitive and pragmatic variables. Object/personality metaphors, color/personality metaphors, concrete metaphors, taxonomic similarities, and functional associates were incorporated into binary choice tasks and administered to 96 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds. The effects of visual vs. verbal presentation, pretend vs. insulting vs. neutral usages of metaphor, and immediate vs. remote information access were assessed. Children of all ages were able to comprehend each of the metaphoric and nonmetaphoric relationships when presented visually. Performance on taxonomic relationships dropped when the task was presented verbally. Performance on metaphors was not meaningfully effected by modality of presentation or type of pragmatic usage, but dropped dramatically when the metaphors were presented within a monologue requiring remote contextual access. Results were interpreted in terms of the developing coordination of conceptual and linguistic skills.
展开▼
