Resumen de La compréhension de métaphores et de pseudo-métaphores chez des enfants âgés de 4 à 8 ans
Marie-Claude Fourment-Aptekman
With the goal of disconfirming the idea of a discrepancy between the early production of metaphors, peaking around ages three to four, and their comprehension which does not appear until around age seven, we used two types of utterances :
(a) pseudo-metaphoric utterances (gathered during symbolic games) ; and (b) metaphoric utterances in which the link between topic and vehicle can rely either on the notion of speed or on a psychological characteristic (the choice nice/naughty) .
In addition, we used little toys, representing the topic and vehicle to aid comprehension.
The results demonstrate that pseudo-metaphoric utterances were to remove understood from 4-years old (87,5 %), whereas the metaphoric utterances were not understood at this age. Metaphoric comprehension increased significantly with age and attained 36 % at eight years old. We note equally that the responses from the magical transformation of topic into vehicle were numerous at all ages, and peaked at age eight. These results are attributed to the usage of little toys, favoring a playful attitude, which did not, otherwise improve performance. The type of link between topic and vehicle did not carry any weight. Only familiarity of certain vehicles brought about better comprehension. The distinction between metaphors and pseudo-metaphors permits us to test and argue against the existence of a discrepancy between production and comprehension.
