Development and understanding of the metaphor among the children of the preschool age

Abstract

Apart from being conditioned by cognitive development, the development, understanding and use of the metaphor influence not only linguistic development in terms of enriching and structuring vocabulary and semantics, but also the general verbal ability of every individual. The aim of our research was to examine the development and understanding of the ability for drawing comparisons and language metaphors in children of preschool age. We also tried to determine whether there were differences in this respect regarding the gender of the students. The research sample consisted of 81 children of age 6-7 from different preschool institutions in Belgrade. The development and understanding of metaphors were tested by applying the subtests 'Comparison and Metaphorical Transfer of the Lexical-Semantical Test' written by Z. Kašić. The obtained results indicate that pre­school children possess a developed ability for drawing comparisons. The results are also indicative of the fact that the metaphor exists in the language of preschool children, but it is not fully developed nor understood. The research also established that there were no differences relative to the gender in the level of adoption of comparisons and metaphors. Given the children's age and the fact that the un­derstanding of different events, actions and activities is directly linked to understanding metaphorical structures, the lower achievement of the preschool children can be attributed to a gradual develop­ment of the metaphorisation ability. Such findings were expected.

Razvijenost, razumevanje i upotreba metafore utiču ne samo na jezički razvoj u smislu bogaćenja i strukturiranja leksike i semantike već i na opštu verbalnu sposobnost svakog pojedinca, a uslovljeni su i kognitivnim razvojem. Cilj našeg istraživanja bio je da ispitamo razvijenost i razumevanje sposobnosti poređenja i jezičkih metafora kod dece na predškolskom uzrastu. Takođe, ispitivali smo da li u ovom pogledu postoje razlike s obzirom na pol učenika. U istraživanju je učestvovalo osamdeset i jedno dete predškolskog uzrasta starosti od šest do sedam godina, iz predškolskih ustanova u Beogradu. Primenom suptestova Poređenje i Metaforički prenos Leksičko-semantičkog testa autorke Z. Kašić procenjeni su razvijenost i razumevanje metafore. Rezultati ispitivanja ukazuju da deca na predškolskom uzrastu imaju razvijenu sposobnost poređenja. Dobijeni nalazi upućuju na postojanje, ali ne i na potpunu razvijenost i razumevanje metafore u jeziku dece predškolskog uzrasta. Ustanovljeno je da na ovom uzrastu između devojčica i dečaka nema razlike u nivou usvojenosti poređenja i metafore. Imajući u vidu uzrast dece i činjenicu da su mnogobrojna razumevanja događaja, akcija i aktivnosti direktno povezana sa shvatanjem metaforičkih struktura, niže postignuće dece na pred­školskom uzrastu se može pripisati postupnosti razvoja sposobnosti metaforizacije, što se može smatrati očekivanim nalazom.