Literature on children's understanding of non-literal meaning

Sat Jan 23 11:09:20 UTC 2010

Dear Kristin,

I am redirecting your query to two French colleagues: one works on  
metaphors in typical and autistic children (Karine Duvigneau), and the  
other coordinates and works herself on humor (Michèle Guidetti). They  
might give you references.
Here are some of the references we've been sharing for our work on  
humor, (some are in French):
Bariaud, F. (1983). La genèse de l’humour chez l’enfant. Paris : PUF.

Behne, T., Carpenter, M. & Tomasello, M. (2005). Unwilling versus  
unable: infants understanding of intentional action. Developmental  
Psychology, 41 (2), 328-337.

Bernicot, J., Laval, V. & Chaminaud, S. (2007). Nonliteral language  
forms in children : In what order are they acquired in pragmatics and  
metapragmatics ? Journal of Pragmatics, 39, 2115–2132.

Cameron, E.L., Kennedy, K.M. & Cameron, C.A. (2008). “Let me show you  
a trick!”: a toddler’s use of humor to explore, interpret and  
negotiate her familial environment during a day in the life. Journal  
of Research in Childhood Education, 25, 127-138.

Clark, H. H. (1996). Using Language. Cambridge: CUP.

Del Ré, A. (2003). A criança e a magia da linguagem: um estudo sobre o  
discurso humorístico. São Paulo,v.1. 265 f, v.2 164 f. Tese (Doutorado  
em Lingüística. Área de Concentração: Semiótica e Lingüística Geral),  
Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas, Universidade de São  
Paulo.

Hoicka, E. & Gattis, M. (2008). Do the wrong thing: how toddlers tell  
a joke from a mistake. Cognitive Development, 23, 180-190.

Hoicka, E. Jutsum, S. & Gattis, M. (2008). Humor, abstraction and  
disbelief. Cognitive Science, 32, 985-1002

Horgan, D. (1981). Learning to tell jokes: a case study of  
metalinguistic abilities. Journal of Child Language, 8, 217-224.

Hoskens, J. Martinot, C & Guidetti, M. (2009a). Developmental aspects  
of humor production. Poster présenté au Workshop on Pragmatic  
Development, Lyon, Avril.

Johnson, K.E. & Mervis, C.B. (1997). First steps in the emergence of  
verbal humor: a case study. Infant Behavior and Development, 20(2),  
187-196.

Kintsch, W., & Van Dijk, T. A. (1978). Towards a Model of Text  
Comprehension and Production. Psychological Review, 85, 363-394.

Laval, V. & Bert-Erboul, A. (2005). French speaking-children’s  
understanding of sarcasm : the role of intonation and context. Journal  
of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 48(3), 610-620.

Laval, V., de Weck, G., Chaminaud, S. & Lacroix, A. (2009). Contexte  
et compréhension des expressions idiomatiques : une étude chez des  
enfants francophones présentant une dysphasie de type phonologique  
syntaxique. Swiss Journal of Psychology, 68(1), 51-60.

Loizou, E. (2007). Humor as a means of regulating one’s social self :  
two infants with unique humorous personas. Early Child Development and  
Care, 177(2), 195-205.

Lyons, V. & Fizgerald, M. (2004). Humor in autism and Asperger  
syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34(5), 521-531.

McGhee, P.E. (&979). Humor : its origin and development. San  
Fransisco : W.H. Freeman and Co.

Piaget, J. & Inhelder, B. (1966). La psychologie de l’enfant. Paris :  
PUF.

Reddy, V. (1991). Playing with other’s expectations: teasing and  
mucking about in the first year. In : A. Whiten (ed.) Natural theories  
of mind (pp. 143-158). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Saint-James, P.J. & Tager-Flusberg, H. (1994). An observational study  
of humor in autism and Down syndrome. Journal of Autism and  
Developmental Disorders, 24(5), 603-617.

Thommen, E. & Suchet, C. (&999). Humour et intentionnalité chez  
l’enfant : Incongruités de propriétés entre l’homme et l’animal.  
Archives de Psychologie, 67, 215-238.

Aliyah MORGENSTERN

Professeur de linguistique
Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3
Institut du Monde Anglophone
5 rue de l'Ecole de Médecine
75006 Paris

Le 23 janv. 10 à 11:57, Isenthia a écrit :

> Dear All,
>
> I was wondering whether you could help me find literature (preferably
> articles) on children's understanding of non-literal meaning such as
> metaphor, idioms, metonymy and also irony, indirect speech acts or
> sarcasm, etc.
>
> I know of a lot of empirical studies that investigate whether there
> are differences in understanding of so-called `literal meaning' vs.
> `non-literal meaning'. However, all of those (that I know) have adult
> subjects. I also know that there IS literature on children's
> understanding non-literal meaning/language (I'm interested especially
> in theories on how and when it is acquired, possibly with differences
> for different types of non-literal meaning). However, it would
> probably take me quite some time finding that as I don't know where to
> look for it and would have to start by feeding google with rather
> unspecific search items ;)
>
> So, I hope you can help me cutting this 'rummaging' short.
>
> Thanks.
> Kristin
>
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