Early Metaphorical Communication: Farsi-Speaking Children Beginning to Learn Proverbs

Seyyed-Abdolhamid Mirhosseini

doi:10.29333/ojcmt/2580

Abstract

Dominant trends of studies on child language and communication have been traditionally concerned with early words and syntax. Little attention has been paid to the emergence of metaphorical and discursive aspects of child language. However, beyond the scope of formal linguistics and traditional cognitive psychology, nonliteral language use is an integral aspect of language acquisition that needs to be dealt with in child language research. This study explores the emergence of proverbs (as complex instances of nonliteral communication) in the language of 6 and 8-year-old Farsi speaking children in two primary schools in Tehran. It is observed that the participants’ knowledge of common Farsi proverbs is beyond the expectations that may be hypothesized based on the existing thin body of literature on proverbs in children’s communication. This relatively early emergence of proverbs in the language of Farsi speaking children and its possible interpretations are discussed in this article.

Highlights

Classical accounts of first language learning and children’s communication have been predominantly concerned with the emergence of words as well as early syntactic structures in child language
In some cases the students were not able to decide which one of the proverbs was about. These cases along with the incorrect choices were together considered as shaping the incorrect response frequency since both incorrect responses and indecision indicated lack of knowledge of the proverb
Depending on the complexity of the nonliteral aspect of language use varying age thresholds are suggested by studies in this area: Indirect requests are argued to be understandable at around 5 to 6 (Bernicot, 1991; Elrod, 1987; Chaminaud, et al, 2006); different types of implicature were found to be understandable by children at 6 and sometimes up to 10 (Bernicot, et al, 2007; Loukusa, et al 2007); and from the age of six, children were observed to be able to start recognizing idioms and it was some times estimated that children should be about 10 before they are able to fully entertain idioms (Abkarian et al, 1992; Chaminaud, et al, 2006)

Summary

Introduction

Classical accounts of first language learning and children’s communication have been predominantly concerned with the emergence of words as well as early syntactic structures in child language. They have broadly tended to pay little, if any, attention to the development of metaphorical and discursive aspects of child language beyond sounds, words, and syntax. On the one hand, linguistically oriented approaches to child language, mainly influenced by Chomsky, generally focused on theoretical hypothesis making about child language development based on innatist views of language acquisition (Chomsky, 1980). Almost no consideration of discursive aspects of language knowledge and use in social contexts is found in such Chomskyan accounts of language learning

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