Contextual and Linguistic Factors in Children's Comprehension of Nonliteral Language

Abstract

It is argued that children's comprehension of nonliteral language is constrained primarily by epistemic, linguistic, and information-processing limitations. Some experimental evidence in support of this position is reviewed, and it is suggested that the linguistic form in which a nonliteral statement is expressed and the context in which it occurs can act on the linguistic and information-processing constraints and thus may facilitate or hinder comprehension. For example, it is easier for children to understand nonliteral statements when the statements are explicit (similes) rather than when they are implicit (predicative metaphors) or when they occur in predictable rather than unpredictable contexts, presumably because these statements reduce the information-processing load of the comprehension task and impose fewer demands on children's linguistic knowledge.