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Figures of Speech, a Way to Acquire Language

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Computation for Metaphors, Analogy, and Agents (CMAA 1998)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 1562))

Abstract

The main aim of this study is to discuss the assumption that analogy and imitation may be a crucial principle in the acquisition of language. The manifestations of the acquisition process are called figures of speech in this study. These memorized entities carry some elements of former contexts in them. Figures of speech may be identical (deferred) imitations, but as well some parts, or the outline of a former utterance may be repeated in them. A tendency of some speech functions to be acquired as figures was found in this study. The findings lead to the constructive-type grammar, in which pragmatics and semantics are an integral part of the structure.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Helsinki and Helsinki Institute of Technology, PL 166, 00181, Helsinki, Finland

    Anneli Kauppinen

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  1. Anneli Kauppinen
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield Herts, AL10 9AB, UK

    Chrystopher L. Nehaniv

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© 1999 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Kauppinen, A. (1999). Figures of Speech, a Way to Acquire Language. In: Nehaniv, C.L. (eds) Computation for Metaphors, Analogy, and Agents. CMAA 1998. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 1562. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48834-0_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48834-0_12

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-65959-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-48834-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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