Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- I PERSPECTIVES
- II DEVELOPING REPRESENTATIONAL SYSTEMS
- 4 Early Cognition: Episodic to Mimetic Childhood in a Hybrid Culture
- 5 The Emergence of Mediating Language
- 6 Memory in Early Childhood: The Emergence of the Historical Self
- 7 The Emergence of the Storied Mind
- III DEVELOPING CONCEPTUAL SYSTEMS
- IV CONCLUSIONS
- Notes
- References
- Name Index
- Subject Index
4 - Early Cognition: Episodic to Mimetic Childhood in a Hybrid Culture
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- I PERSPECTIVES
- II DEVELOPING REPRESENTATIONAL SYSTEMS
- 4 Early Cognition: Episodic to Mimetic Childhood in a Hybrid Culture
- 5 The Emergence of Mediating Language
- 6 Memory in Early Childhood: The Emergence of the Historical Self
- 7 The Emergence of the Storied Mind
- III DEVELOPING CONCEPTUAL SYSTEMS
- IV CONCLUSIONS
- Notes
- References
- Name Index
- Subject Index
Summary
Walk into any preschool serving children between the ages of 2 and 4 years and you will find the mimetic society in miniature. Language is heard, as children direct each other in play, exchange comments, sing songs, yell in triumph or tragedy in the play yard, listen to the stories read by caretakers, follow directions for cleaning up, getting food, laying out cots for naps, and so on. But despite the language noise, and with the exception of the story reading, language is used in, as part of, and in conjunction with these activities, and not primarily as a medium of conveying knowledge from one person to another. Its primary use is pragmatic, not symbolic. Symbolic activities proliferate in games, songs, pretense play, building, painting, modeling with Play-Doh, working with number boards, looking at picture books, and so on. Narratives of everyday life and of imaginary situations are literally played out, using the props of the housekeeping corner, the play yard, blocks, and trucks. This is the episodic/mimetic world of the young child. Within these activities language is learned, used, and extended.
The hypothesis to be explored in this chapter is that in human childhood, the episodic/mimetic world enables the linguistic/narrative world to emerge, and that the first three years of life encompass the transition from the first level of representation in terms of events or episodes to the second, in terms of socially shared motorically expressed representations relevant to actions in the real world, mimesis (Donald, 1991).
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- Information
- Language in Cognitive DevelopmentThe Emergence of the Mediated Mind, pp. 91 - 119Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996