The Language and Thought of the Child

The Language and Thought of the Child BY JEAN PIAGET. Originally published in 1926. Contents include: PREFACE ix FOREWORD . . . . . . . xix CHAPTER I THE FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE IN TWO CHILDREN OF SIX I I. The material ....... 5 I. An example of the talk taken down, 6 2. The functions of child language classified, 9 3. Repetition echolalia, ii 4. Monologue, 13 5. Collective monologue, 18 6. Adapted information, 19 7. Criticism and derision, 26 8. Commands, requests, threats, 27 9. Questions and answers, 28. II. Conclusions 34 10. The measure of ego-centrism, 34 n. Conclusion, 37 12. Results and hypotheses, 43. CHAPTER II TYPES AND STAGES IN THE CONVERSATION OF CHILDREN BETWEEN THE AGES OF FOUR AND SEVEN SO i. Check of the coefficient of ego-cenmsm, 51 2. Types of conversation between children, 52 3. Stage I Collective monologue, 56 4. Stage HA, First type Association with the action of others, 58 5. Stage UA, Second type Collaboration in action or in non vi CONTENTS abstract thought, 60 7. Stage I IB, First type Quarrelling, 65 8. Stage IIu, Second type Primi tive argument, 68 9, Stage IIlB Genuine argument, 7010, Conclusions, 73. CHAPTER III UNDERSTANDING AND VERBAL EXPLANATION IJEWEEN CHILDREN OF THE SAME AGE BETWEEN THE YEARS OF SIX AND EIGHT. 76 i. The method of experiment, 792. Parcelling out the material, 86 3. Numerical results, 944, Ego-centrism in the explanations given by one child to another, 99 5. The ideas of order and cause in the expositions given by the explainers, 1076. The factors of understanding, 119 7. Conclusion. The question of stages and the effort towards objectivity in the accounts given by children to one another, 124. CHAPTER IV SOME PECULIARITIES OF VERBAL UNDER STANDING IN THE CHILD BETWEEN THE AGES OF NINE AND ELEVEN 127 7. Verbal syncretism, 131 2, Syncretism of reasoning, 136 3. The need for justification at any price, 1454, Syncretism of understanding, 1505. Conclusion, 157. CHAPTER V THE QUESTIONS OF A CHILD OF SIX . . 1 62 I. f Whys 164 I. Principal types of whys, 166 2. Whys of causa explanation. Introduction and classification by material 171 3. Structure of the whys of explanation 1804. Whys of motivation 1885. a Whys of justification, 1 191 - 6, Conclusions, 197. LUJNIJiJNIb vn II. Questions not expressed under the form why . 199 7. Classification of Dels questions not expressed under the form, why, 199 8. Questions of causal explanation, 202 9. Questions of reality and history, 207 10. Ques tions about human actions and questions about rules, 214 ii. Questions of classification and calculation, 216. III. Conclusions 217 12. Statistical results, 217 13. The decline of precaus ality, 223 14. Conclusion. Categories of thought or logical functions in the child of seven, 227. APPENDIX 239 INDEX 245. PREFACE: THE importance of this remarkable work deserves to be doubly emphasized, for its novelty consists both in the results obtained and in the method by which they have been reached. How does the child think How does he speak What are the characteristics of his judgment and of his reasoning For half a century the answer has been sought to these questions which are those which we meet with at the very threshold of child psychology. If philosophers and biologists have bent their interest upon the soul of the child, it is because of the initial surprise they experienced at his logic and speech. In proof of this, we need only recall the words of Taine, of Darwin and of Egger, which are among the first recorded in the science of child logic. I cannot give a list here of all the works that have appeared since that period those of Preyer and of Sully, of P...