1~6岁儿童隐喻与转喻习得的实证研究——基于CHILDES语料库的分析
Empirical Research on Metaphors and Metonymies in the Language of Children between 1 and 6 Years of Age—An Analysis Based on CHILDES Corpus
DOI: 10.12677/ml.2025.137715, PDF,    科研立项经费支持
作者: 左 圆, 王 悠, 靳一如：四川外国语大学西方语言文化学院，重庆
关键词: 儿童语言；隐喻；转喻；认知；Children’s Language； Metaphor； Metonymy； Cognition
摘要: 本研究以CHILDES语料库为基础，对1~6岁单语儿童的隐喻和转喻能力进行跨语言研究。研究对象为母语分别为中文、英语和西班牙语的儿童，通过分析他们与成人的对话语料，探讨儿童早期语言中词汇层面的隐喻和转喻现象及其与认知发展之间的关系。每个年龄组(每岁为一个年龄组，共六个年龄组)的儿童语料总数约为1400条，总计约8400条语料。研究采用定性分析与定量分析相结合的方法。首先对语料进行标注，识别并分类其中的隐喻和转喻表达。然后，运用统计学方法，比较不同年龄组、不同语言背景儿童使用隐喻和转喻的频率和类型差异。研究结果表明，母语为中文、英语和西班牙语的儿童在1岁时已展现出使用转喻的能力，而隐喻的使用则出现较晚，平均在2~3岁之间才开始出现，且频率明显低于转喻。这说明儿童的语言能力和认知能力是随着年龄的增长而不断发展的。
Abstract: This study is a cross-linguistic study of the metaphorical and metonymic abilities of monolingual children aged 1~6 years based on the CHILDES corpus. Children whose native languages are Chinese, English, and Spanish were studied, and their conversational corpus with adults was analyzed to explore the phenomena of metaphor and metonymy at the lexical level in children’s early language and their relationship with cognitive development. The total number of children’s corpora for each age group (one age group per year, six age groups in total) was about 1400, totaling about 8400 corpora. The study used a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis. The corpus was first labeled to identify and classify the metaphorical and metonymic expressions in it. Then, statistical methods were applied to compare the differences in the frequency and type of metaphors and metonymy used by children of different age groups and language backgrounds. The results of the study showed that children whose native languages were Chinese, English and Spanish demonstrated the ability to use metaphors by the age of 1 year, whereas the use of metaphors appeared later, on average between the ages of 2 and 3 years old, and with a significantly lower frequency than that of metaphors. This suggests that children’s linguistic and cognitive abilities develop with age.
文章引用：左圆, 王悠, 靳一如. 1~6岁儿童隐喻与转喻习得的实证研究——基于CHILDES语料库的分析[J]. 现代语言学, 2025, 13(7): 319-326. https://doi.org/10.12677/ml.2025.137715

参考文献

[1] Chomsky, N. (1992) El lenguaje y los problemas del conocimiento: Conferencias de Managua. Editorial Machado Libros.
[2] Wilkins, D.A. (1972) Language and Languages Study and Teaching. MIT Press.
[3] Di Paola, S., Domaneschi, F. and Pouscoulous, N. (2020) Metaphorical Developing Minds: The Role of Multiple Factors in the Development of Metaphor Comprehension. Journal of Pragmatics, 156, 235-251. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] 
[4] Pouscoulous, N. and Tomasello, M. (2020) Early Birds: Metaphor Understanding in 3-Year-Olds. Journal of Pragmatics, 156, 160-167. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] 
[5] Bonnet, C. and Tamine, J.G. (1982) Les noms construits par les enfants: Description d’un corpus. Langages, 16, 67-101. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] 
[6] Gibbs, R.W. (1994) The Poetics of Mind-Figurative Thought, Language, and Understanding. Cambridge University Press.
[7] Konieczna, E. (2006) Motivation in Language: The Case of Metonymically Motivated Innovative Nouns in Children’s Speech. Odisea, 7, 103-117.
[8] Choi, S. (1997) Language-Specific Input and Early Semantic Development: Evidence from Children Learning Korean. In: The Crosslinguistic Study of Language Acquisition, Vol. 5: Expanding the Contexts, Routledge, 41-133.
[9] Gentner, D. (1982) Why Nouns Are Learned before Verbs: Linguistic Relativity versus Natural Partitioning. Language, 2, 301-334.
[10] Tardif, T. (1996) Nouns Are Not Always Learned before Verbs: Evidence from Mandarin Speakers’ Early Vocabularies. Developmental Psychology, 32, 492-504. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] 
[11] Tardif, T., Shatz, M. and Naigles, L. (1997) Caregiver Speech and Children’s Use of Nouns versus Verbs: A Comparison of English, Italian, and Mandarin. Journal of Child Language, 24, 535-565. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
[12] Pinker, S. (2007) The Language Instinct. 2nd Edition, Harper Perennial Modern Classics.
[13] Chomsky, N. (1965) Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. MIT Press.
[14] Lenneberg, E.H. (1967) Biological Foundations of Language. Wiley.
[15] Bloom, L. (1976) One Word at a Time: The Use of Single-Word Utterances before Syntax. De Gruyter Mouton.
[16] Brown, R. (1973) A First Language: The Early Stages. Harvard University Press.
[17] Schlesinger, I. (1971) Production of Utterances and Language Acquisition. In: Slobin, D.I., Ed., The Ontogenesis of Grammar: A Theoretical Symposium, Academic Press, 63-101.
[18] Slobin, D.I. (1969) Universals of Grammatical Development in Children.
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED032543.pdf
[19] Goldberg, A.E. (2006) Constructions at Work: The Nature of Generalization in Language. Oxford University Press.
[20] Tomasello, M. (2005) Constructing a Language: A Usage-Based Theory of Language Acquisition. Harvard University Press.
[21] Biber, D. (1988) Variation across Speech and Writing. Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] 
[22] Friginal, E. and Bristow, M. (2017) Corpus Approaches to Sociolinguistics. In: Friginal, E. and Bristow, M., Eds., Studies in Corpus-Based Sociolinguistics, Routledge, 1-15. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] 
[23] Croft, W. and Cruse, D.A. (2004) Cognitive Linguistics. Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] 
[24] Clark, H.H. and Clark, E.V. (1977) Psychology and Language: An Introduction to Psycholinguistics. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
[25] Lakoff, G. (1993) The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor. Cambridge University Press.
[26] Rundblad, G. and Annaz, D. (2010) Development of Metaphor and Metonymy Comprehension: Receptive Vocabulary and Conceptual Knowledge. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 28, 547-563. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
[27] Piaget, J. (1971) The Theory of Stages in Cognitive Development. In: Green, D., Ford, M.P. and Flamer, G.B., Eds., Measurement and Piaget, McGraw-Hill, 1-11.
[28] Hyde, J.S. (2005) The Gender Similarities Hypothesis. American Psychologist, 60, 581-592. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
[29] Hyde, J.S. (2016) Sex and Cognition: Gender and Cognitive Functions. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 38, 53-56. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
[30] Lindberg, S.M., Hyde, J.S., Petersen, J.L. and Linn, M.C. (2010) New Trends in Gender and Mathematics Performance: A Meta-Analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 136, 1123-1135. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
[31] Zell, E., Krizan, Z. and Teeter, S.R. (2015) Evaluating Gender Similarities and Differences Using Meta-Synthesis. American Psychologist, 70, 10-20. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
[32] Maccoby, E.E. and Jacklin, C.N. (1980) Sex Differences in Aggression: A Rejoinder and Reprise. Child Development, 51, 964-980. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
[33] Barcelona, A. (2000) On the Plausibility of Claiming a Metonymic Motivation for Conceptual Metaphor. Topics in English Linguistics, 30, 31-58.
[34] 周榕, 黄希庭. 儿童时间隐喻表征能力的发展研究[J]. 心理科学, 2001, 24(5): 606-607+609.
[35] 周榕. 儿童时间隐喻能力发展趋势初探[J]. 现代外语, 2003, 26(3): 222-231.
[36] Bushnell, E.W. and Maratsos, M.P. (1984) Spooning and Basketing: Children’s Dealing with Accidental Gaps in the Lexicon. Child Development, 55, 893-902. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
[37] Clark, E.V. (1982) The Young Word Maker: A Case Study of Innovation in the Child’s Lexicon. In: Wanner, E. and Gleitman, L.R., Eds., Language Acquisition: The State of the Art, Cambridge University Press, 390-428.
[38] Nerlich, B. (1999) Mummy, I Like Being a Sandwich. In: Panther, K.U. and Radden, G., Eds., Metonymy in Language and Thought, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 361-384.
[39] Talmy, L. (2000) Toward a Cognitive Semantics. MIT Press.
[40] Falkum, I.L., Recasens, M. and Clark, E.V. (2017) The Princess and the Pea Test: Measuring Children’s Metalinguistic Awareness of Ambiguity. First Language, 37, 207-226.
[41] Bloom, P. (2000) How Children Learn the Meanings of Words. The MIT Press. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] 
[42] Bowerman, M. and Levinson, S.C. (2001) Language Acquisition and Conceptual Development. Cambridge University Press.
[43] Calderón Guerrero, G., Maldonado Ahuamada, C. and Vernon Carter, S. (2017) La comprensión de las metáforas en niños de primaria. Revista educativa, electrónica de investigación, 19, 104-113.
[44] Calderón Guerrero, G., Vernon Carter, S. and Carrillo Pacheco, M. (2012) Interpretación y reinterpretación de adivinanzas metafóricas: La importancia del nivel de desarrollo y del tipo de tarea en niños de 7 a 13 años. Estudios de Lingüística Aplicada, 30, 61-82.
[45] Winner, E., Rosenstiel, A.K. and Gardner, H. (1976) The Development of Metaphoric Understanding. Developmental Psychology, 12, 289-297. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]