Book description
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...
