Metaphors We Move By: Children's Developing Understanding of Metaphorical Motion in Typologically Distinct Languages

Abstract

This paper examines comprehension of metaphorical motion (e.g., "time flies by") among 4- and 5-year-old children, who are learning English or Turkish as their native language. Results show both cross-linguistic similarities and differences. In both languages, children can understand metaphors embedded in stories by age 4, and provide verbal explanations for isolated instances of metaphors by age 5. Moreover, in both languages, changes in children's metaphorical ability are indexed by changes in their gestures. By age 4, children treat metaphorical concepts as physical objects and produce gestures that convey physical motion; whereas, by age 5, children begin to convey metaphorical meaning by producing gestures in spaces aligned with the target domain of the metaphor. Children also differ in their expression of metaphorical motion in the two languages; children learning English convey manner of motion more extensively than children learning Turkish. The findings underscore metaphor as an early emerging cognitive and linguistic ability, and provide further evidence for the embodied nature of conceptual metaphors.