Current Issues In Language and Society
|
Volume: 3 Number: 1 Page: 82–90
|
|
|
|
|
Metaphor, Play and Drama: The Role of the Symbolic in the Development of Sociolinguistic Competence
|
|
Zazie Todd
|
|
In this paper I explore the inter-relationships between metaphor, play and drama, and the roles they play in the development of sociolinguistic competence. I concentrate particularly on the role of symbolic
play in the development of metaphor, and the importance of metaphor in discourse. Symbolic play has long been seen as important in child development and I show how metaphor is another of the abilities that
arises from pretend play. I then look at the question of what happens to the skills used in pretend play as children grow older, and how they can continue to be developed through drama. Finally, I examine
the nature of autism, a condition marked by an absence of both symbolic play and metaphor, to see what light this can shed on the links between the two.
Full text PDF
|
