EGOCENTRISK TALE, BEGREBSSTRUKTUR OG SEMANTISK UDVIKLING

Abstract

Artiklen søger at vise, at såkaldt egocentrisk tale ikke skyldes en sxrlig “kognitiv egocentri” hos førskolebørn (som Piaget hævder) og heller ikke blot er en forløber for “indre tale” (som hævdet af Vygotsky). Ud fra de seneste års undersøgelser af referentiel kommunikation kan egocentrisk tale derimod forstås som et aiment faenomen hos såvel børn som voksne, betinget af begrebssystemets struktur og udvikling.

SUMMARY

Egocentric speech as described by Piaget is analyzed, and studies of egocentricity in referential communication are reviewed. It is argued that it can be explained neither by Piaget's theory of cognitive egocentricity, nor by Vygotsky's theory of a link which mediates social and inner speech. Also, Flavell's explanation in terms of cognitive overload is rejected as insufficient. To provide a more adequate basis for a theory of egocentric speech, the new paradigm of fuzzy concepts organized around prototypical instances is described. It is shown that the social standardization of concepts and word meanings necessary for communication is more narrow in children than in adults, and the lack of conscious analysis of conceptual dimensions in children is pointed out. Therefore, when a child has to characterize new and strange objects, he/she will—more often than an adult—be forced to rely on idiosyncratic, episodic associations rather than semantically analyzed similarities, thus resulting in egocentric descriptions.