Cover not available

Article In: Metaphor and the Social World: Online-First Articles

Children’s ability to interpret metaphorical polysemy in educational materials

 | University of Leeds
 | University of Southampton
 | Lancaster University
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
Metaphor is used as a tool for communicating specialist knowledge to non-specialists in popular discourse and in educational contexts. Research has explored its use in higher education, but less is known about its efficacy with learners of school age. Experimental research has shown that very young children are able to interpret and produce attributional metaphors, but that relational metaphors and analogies do not seem to be understood until late childhood. The qualitative study reported here complements that work. We interviewed 30 children aged between 10 and 12 in focus groups, eliciting instances of academic words and meanings that they found new and challenging, and using naturally-occurring educational texts as prompts for discussion about individual words. We found some awareness of polysemy in general, and of word meanings that have a metaphorical basis. However, when they encountered a new metaphor-related meaning of a known word, the children showed a tendency to fall back on the previously known meaning even where this was contextually unfeasible. When specifically asked to work out the new meanings, it became evident that this is often challenging for them even with scaffolding.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Metaphors as pedagogical tools
    • 2.2Children’s ability to understand and produce polysemy and metaphor
    • 2.3Pedagogical metaphors and children
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Interview data
    • 3.2Procedure: Coding and themes
    • 3.3Procedure: Metaphor identification
  • 4.Findings
    • 4.1Metaphors identified in the polysemy theme
    • 4.2A metaphor identified in the definition/ explanations theme
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Note
  • References
References (36)
References
Booton, S., Hodgkiss, A., Mathers, A., & Murphy, V. (2022a). Measuring knowledge of multiple word meanings in children with English as a first and an additional language and the relationship to reading comprehension. Journal of Child Language, 491, 164–196. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Booton, S., Wonnacott, E. Hodgkiss, A., Mathers, S. & Murphy, V. (2022b). Children’s knowledge of multiple word meanings: Which factors count, and for whom? Applied Linguistics, 43(2), 293–315. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boyd, R. (1993). Metaphor and theory change: what is ’metaphor’ a metaphor for? In Ortony, A. (Ed.) Metaphor and Thought (pp. 481–533). Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Braun, V. & Clarke, V. (2021). One size fits all? What counts as quality practice in (reflexive) thematic analysis? Qualitative Research in Psychology, 18(3), 328–352. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Byrne, D. (2022). A worked example of Braun and Clarke’s approach to reflexive thematic analysis. Quality and Quantity, 561, 1391–1422. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cameron, L. (2002). Metaphors in the learning of science: A discourse focus. British Educational Research Journal, 28(5), 673–688. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2003). Metaphor in Educational Discourse. Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carriedo, N., Corral, A., Montoro, P. R., Herrero, L., Ballestrino, P. & Sebastiàn, I. (2016). The development of metaphor comprehension and its relationship with relational verbal reasoning and executive function. Plos One 10.13711, 1–20. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cruse, A. (1986). Lexical Semantics. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Daane, A., Haglund, J., Robertson, A., Close, H., & Scherr, R. (2018). The pedagogical value of conceptual metaphor for secondary science teachers. Science Teacher Education, 1021, 1051–1076. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Deckert, M., Schmoeger, M., Schaunig-Busch, I., & Willinger, U. (2019). Metaphor processing in middle childhood and at the transition to early adolescence: the role of chronological age, mental age, and verbal intelligence. Journal of Child Language, 461, 334–367. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Deignan, A., Semino, E., & Paul, S. (2019). Metaphors of climate science in three genres: research articles, educational texts, and secondary school student talk. Applied Linguistics, 40(2), 379–403. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Deignan, A., Candarli, D., & Oxley, F. (2023). The linguistic challenge of the transition to secondary school: A corpus study of academic language. Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fang, Z. (2006). The language demands of science reading in middle school. International Journal of Science Education, 28(5), 491–520. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gentner, D. (1988). Metaphor as structure mapping: The relational shift. Child Development, 59(1), 47–59. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gentner, D. & Gentner, D. R. (1983). Flowing Waters and Teeming Crowds: Mental Models of Electricity. In D. Gentner & A. L. Stevens (Eds.), Mental Models, (pp. 99–129). Erlbaum, Hillsdale.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gibbs, R. (2017). Metaphor wars: Conceptual metaphors in human life. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hanks, P. (2013). Lexical analysis: Norms and exploitations. MIT Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hessel, A. & Murphy, V. A. (2019). Understanding how time flies and what it means to be on cloud nine: English as an Additional Language (EAL) learners’ metaphor comprehension. Journal of Child Language, 461, 265–291. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hume, K. (2011). Using metaphor and analogy for better student learning. Teach Magazine. [[URL]] accessed 28th July 2025.
Knudsen, S. (2003). Scientific metaphors going public. Journal of Pragmatics, 35(8), 1247–1263. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Low, G. (2008). Metaphor and education. In Gibbs, R. (ed.) The Cambridge Handbook of Metaphor and Thought. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moon, R. (1986). The analysis of meaning. In J. Sinclair (Eds.) Looking up: An account of the COBUILD project in lexical computing (pp. 86–103). Collins ELT.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nippold, M. (2006). Language development in school-age children, adolescents and adults. In K. Brown (Eds.) Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (pp. 368–372). Elsevier Science. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nippold, M. & Taylor, C. (2002). Judgments of idiom familiarity and transparency: A comparison of children and adolescents. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 451, 384–391. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pragglejaz Group (2007). MIP: A method for identifying metaphorically used words in discourse. Metaphor and Symbol, 22(1), 1–39.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Quigley, A. (2019). ‘How to develop vocabulary in the classroom’ in Education Next [URL]. Accessed July 28th 2025.
QSR International Pty Ltd. (2020). NVivo Qualitative Data Analysis Software [software]. [URL]
Rundblad, G., & Annaz, D. (2010). Development of metaphor and metonymy comprehension: Receptive vocabulary and conceptual knowledge. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 281, 547–563. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smedinga, M., Cienki, A., & de Regt, H. W. (2023). Metaphors as tools for understanding in science communication among experts and to the public. Metaphor and the Social World, 13(2), 248–268. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Steen, G. J., Dorst, A. G., Herrman, J. B., Kaal, A. A., Krennmayr, T., & Pasma, T., (2019). MIPVU: A manual for identifying metaphor-related words. In S. Nacey & W. G. Reijnierse (Eds.) Converging evidence in language and communication research (pp. 23–40). John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Werkmann Horvat, A., Štrkalj Despot, K., & Hržica, G. (2024). Early acquisition of figurative meaning in polysemous nouns and verbs. Language and Cognition, 16(4), 2055–2080. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Willinger, U., Deckert, M., Schmöger, M., Schaunig-Busch, I., Formann, A. K., & Auff, E. (2019). Developmental steps in metaphorical language abilities: The influence of age, gender, cognitive flexibility, information processing speed, and analogical reasoning. Language and Speech, 62(2), 207–228. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Winner, E., Rosenstiel, A., & Gardner, H. (1976). The development of metaphoric understanding. Developmental Psychology, 12(4), 289–297. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue