School of Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK.
Int J Lang Commun Disord. 2009 Nov-Dec;44(6):962-78. doi: 10.1080/13682820802525005.
Figurative language, such as metaphor and metonymy, is very common in daily language use. Its underlying cognitive processes are sometimes viewed as lying at the interface of language and thought. Williams syndrome, which is a rare genetic developmental disorder, provides an opportunity to study this interface because individuals with this disorder have relative strengths in vocabulary and syntax against a background of low general cognitive ability. Few studies have investigated metaphor comprehension in Williams syndrome and none has investigated metonymy.
This is the first study to investigate metaphor and metonymy comprehension in Williams syndrome and to compare their performance with a group of typically developing children.
METHODS & PROCEDURES: Ten children with Williams syndrome were compared with eleven typically developing children in a novel metaphor-metonymy comprehension task. Cross-sectional trajectory analyses were used to compare the development of metaphor and metonymy using a child-friendly story picture task. Trajectories were constructed linking task performance either to chronological age or to measures of mental age (receptive vocabulary, visuospatial construction).
OUTCOMES & RESULTS: The performance of children with Williams syndrome was significantly poorer than the typically developing group. The comprehension of metonyms was in line with receptive vocabulary, but comprehension of metaphors fell below this level.
CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: Metonyms may be part of vocabulary and treated as synonyms in Williams syndrome, while metaphor engages additional cognitive mechanisms outside language that develop atypically in this disorder. Despite earlier reports that emphasize good language skills, the Williams syndrome language system shows anomalies compared with typical development.
比喻和转喻等修辞在日常语言中非常常见。其潜在的认知过程有时被认为处于语言和思维的交界处。威廉姆斯综合征是一种罕见的遗传性发育障碍，为研究这一交界提供了机会，因为患有这种疾病的个体在背景认知能力较低的情况下具有相对较强的词汇和句法能力。很少有研究调查威廉姆斯综合征中的隐喻理解，也没有研究转喻。
这是首次研究威廉姆斯综合征中的隐喻和转喻理解，并将其与一组典型发展儿童进行比较。
将 10 名患有威廉姆斯综合征的儿童与 11 名典型发展儿童在一项新颖的隐喻-转喻理解任务中进行比较。使用儿童友好型故事图片任务进行横向轨迹分析，比较隐喻和转喻的发展。轨迹的构建将任务表现与年龄或心理年龄（接受性词汇、视空间建构）的测量值联系起来。
患有威廉姆斯综合征的儿童的表现明显差于典型发展组。转喻的理解与接受性词汇相符，但隐喻的理解低于这一水平。转喻可能是词汇的一部分，在威廉姆斯综合征中被视为同义词，而隐喻则涉及语言之外的额外认知机制，在这种疾病中发育异常。尽管早期报告强调了良好的语言技能，但与典型发展相比，威廉姆斯综合征的语言系统存在异常。
