Empirical Research on Metaphors and Metonymies in the Language of Children between 1 and 6 Years of Age—An Analysis Based on CHILDES Corpus

本研究以CHILDES语料库为基础，对1~6岁单语儿童的隐喻和转喻能力进行跨语言研究。研究对象为母语分别为中文、英语和西班牙语的儿童，通过分析他们与成人的对话语料，探讨儿童早期语言中词汇层面的隐喻和转喻现象及其与认知发展之间的关系。每个年龄组(每岁为一个年龄组，共六个年龄组)的儿童语料总数约为1400条，总计约8400条语料。研究采用定性分析与定量分析相结合的方法。首先对语料进行标注，识别并分类其中的隐喻和转喻表达。然后，运用统计学方法，比较不同年龄组、不同语言背景儿童使用隐喻和转喻的频率和类型差异。研究结果表明，母语为中文、英语和西班牙语的儿童在1岁时已展现出使用转喻的能力，而隐喻的使用则出现较晚，平均在2~3岁之间才开始出现，且频率明显低于转喻。这说明儿童的语言能力和认知能力是随着年龄的增长而不断发展的。This study is a cross-linguistic study of the metaphorical and metonymic abilities of monolingual children aged 1~6 years based on the CHILDES corpus. Children whose native languages are Chinese, English, and Spanish were studied, and their conversational corpus with adults was analyzed to explore the phenomena of metaphor and metonymy at the lexical level in children’s early language and their relationship with cognitive development. The total number of children’s corpora for each age group (one age group per year, six age groups in total) was about 1400, totaling about 8400 corpora. The study used a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis. The corpus was first labeled to identify and classify the metaphorical and metonymic expressions in it. Then, statistical methods were applied to compare the differences in the frequency and type of metaphors and metonymy used by children of different age groups and language backgrounds. The results of the study showed that children whose native languages were Chinese, English and Spanish demonstrated the ability to use metaphors by the age of 1 year, whereas the use of metaphors appeared later, on average between the ages of 2 and 3 years old, and with a significantly lower frequency than that of metaphors. This suggests that children’s linguistic and cognitive abilities develop with age.