ERIC Number: EJ1485915
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Mar
Pages: 21
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0305-0009
EISSN: EISSN-1469-7602
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Metaphor Comprehension in the Acquisition of Arabic
Alaa Almohammadi1,2; Dorota Katarzyna Gaskins2; Gabriella Rundblad2
Journal of Child Language, v52 n2 p334-354 2025
Metaphors are key to how children conceptualise the world around them and how they engage socially and educationally. This study investigated metaphor comprehension in typically developing Arabic-speaking children aged 3;01-6;07. Eighty-seven children were administered a newly developed task containing 20 narrated stories and were asked to point at pictures that best illustrated the metaphoric expression. The results were examined through a mixed ANCOVA, testing the effects of chronological age, metaphor type (primary, perceptual) and metaphor conventionality (conventional, novel) on metaphor comprehension. Children could understand some metaphors just after their third birthday, and their comprehension increased with age. Children's performance was somewhat better on primary than perceptual, and much better on conventional than novel metaphors. These findings are discussed in light of conceptual metaphor theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 2008) and structure mapping theory (Gentner & Markman, 1997), confirming differences in the acquisition of different metaphor types.
Descriptors: Figurative Language, Language Usage, Comprehension, Child Language, Children, Language Acquisition, Arabic, Task Analysis
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia; 2School of Education, Communication and Society, King’s College London, Waterloo Bridge Wing, Franklin-Wilkins Building, Waterloo Road, SE1 9NH, London, United Kingdom

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