In:Emotion in Language: Theory – research – application
Edited by Ulrike M. Lüdtke
[Consciousness & Emotion Book Series 10] 2015
► pp. 257–272
The occurrence of idioms in the emotion lexicon of children
Published online: 16 December 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/ceb.10.13gla
https://doi.org/10.1075/ceb.10.13gla
This paper reports on two studies on the development of the emotion lexicon of
German-speaking children in the age range from five to ten. Study 1 is based on
a production task using picture stories to elicit the participants’ emotion lexicon.
Study 2 involves a perception task in which participants are asked to sort
several idiomatic and non-idiomatic lexical expressions for anger, fear, and joy
with respect to similarity of meaning and intensity. While Study 1 verifies that
idioms only occur from the fourth-grade on, Study 2 provides evidence for an
earlier occurrence of idioms. In addition, the analysis points to major changes
caused by the integration of idioms into the emotion lexicon of children.
References (26)
Anglin, Jeremy M. 2002. “Later lexical and semantic development.” In Lexicology. An International Handbook on the Nature and Structure of Words and Vocabularies, D. Allen Cruse, Fritz Hundsnurscher, Michael Job and Peter R. Lutzeier (eds), 1789–1800. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Clark, Eve V. 2000. “Later lexical development and word formation.” In Handbook of Child Language, Paul Fletcher and Brian MacWhinney (eds), 393–412. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Coupland, Nikolaus, Coupland, Justine, Giles, Howard and Henwood, Karen. 1988. “Accomodating the elderly: Invoking and extending a theory.” Language in Society 17 (1): 1–41.
Dobrovol’skij, Dimitrij. 1997. Idiome im Mentalen Lexikon. Ziele und Methoden der Kognitiven Phraseologieforschung. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag.
Fiehler, Reinhard. 1990. Kommunikation und Emotion. Theoretische und Empirische Untersuchungen zur Rolle von Emotionen in der Verbalen Interaktion. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Foolen, Ad. 2012. “The relevance of emotion for language and linguistics.” In Moving Ourselves, Moving Others: Motion and Emotion in Intersubjectivity, Consciousness and Language. Consciousness & Emotion Book Series 6, Ad Foolen, Ulrike M. Lüdtke, Timothy P. Racine and Jordan Zlatev (eds), 349–368. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Fries, Norbert. 2004. “Gefühle, Emotionen, Angst, Furcht, Wut und Zorn.” In Emotion und Kognition im Fremdsprachunterricht, Wolfgang Börner and Klaus Vogel (eds), 3–24. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.
Gibbs, Raymond W. 1994. The Poetics of Mind. Figurative Thought, Language, and Understanding. London: Cambridge University Press.
Gibbs, Raymond W., Leggit, John S. and Turner, Elizabeth A. 2002. “What’s special about figurative language in emotional communication?” In The Verbal Communication of Emotions. Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Susan R. Fussel (ed.), 125–149. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Glaznieks, Aivars. 2011a. Emotionsbezeichnungen im Kindlichen Wortschatz. Die Ausdifferenzierung der Lexikalischen Felder „Angst“ und „Ärger“ bei Kindern im Vor- und Grundschulalter. Hamburg: Dr. Kovač.
. 2011b. “Why focus on target domains? The importance of domain knowledge in children’s understanding of metaphors.” In Windows to the Mind: Metaphor, Metonymy and Conceptual Blending, Sandra Handl and Hans-Jörg Schmid (eds), 63–84. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
. forthcoming. “The acquisition of metaphors.” In Teaching (in) metaphors, Constanze Juchem-Grundmann and Susanne Niemeier (eds). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Grondelaers, Stefan and Geeraerts, Dirk. 2003. “Towards a pragmatic model of cognitive onomasiology.” In Cognitive Approaches to Lexical Semantics, Hubert Cuyckens, René Dirven and John R. Taylor (eds), 67–92. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Grimm, Hannelore. 1977. Psychologie der Sprachentwicklung. Band II. Entwicklung der Semantik und der sprachlichen Kommunikation. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.
Häcki Buhofer, Annelies. 1980. Der Spracherwerb von phraseologischen Wortverbindungen. Eine psycholinguistische Untersuchung an schweizerdeutschem Material. Frauenfeld: Huber.
Hascher, Tina. 1994. Emotionsbeschreibung und Emotionsverstehen. Zur Entwicklung des Emotionsvokabulars und des Ambivalenzverstehens im Kindesalter. Münster/New York: Waxmann.
Hindelang, Götz. 1992. “Zur Onomasiologie des Gebrechens.” Münstersches Logbuch zur Linguistik 1992 (1): 1–15.
Hussey, Karen and Katz, Albert N. 2006. “Metaphor production in online conversation: Gender and friendship status.” Discourse Processes 46 (1): 75–98.
Kauschke, Christina and Klann-Delius, Gisela. 1997. “The acquisition of verbal expressions for internal states in German. A descriptive, explorative, longitudinal study.” In The Language of Emotions, Susanne Niemeier and René Dirven (eds), 175–194. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Lüdtke, Ulrike M. 2012. “Relational emotions in semiotic and linguistic development. Towards an intersubjective theory of language learning and language therapy.” In Moving Ourselves, Moving Others. Motion and Emotion in Intersubjectivity, Consciousness and Language, Ad Foolen, Ulrike M. Lüdtke, Timothy P. Racine and Jordan Zlatev (eds), 305–346. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
McGregor, Karla K., Friedman, Rena M., Reilly, Renée M. and Newman, Robyn M. 2002. “Semantic representation and naming in young children.” Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 45: 332–346.
Ortony, Andrew and Fainsilber, Lynn. 1989. “The Role of Metaphors in Descriptions of Emotions.” In Theoretical Issues in Natural Language Processing, Yorik Willis (ed.), 178–182. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Ridgeway, Doreen, Water, Everett and Kuczaj II, Stan A. 1985. “Acquisition of emotion-descriptive language: Receptive and productive vocabulary norms for ages 18 months to 6 years.” Developmental Psychology 21: 901–908.