SŁOWNIK UMYSŁOWY DZIECI SIEDMIOLETNICH ZE ŚRODOWISKA MIEJSKIEGO I WIEJSKIEGO NA PRZYKŁADZIE POLA TEMATYCZNEGO ZWYCZAJE I OBYCZAJE
Intellectual Glossary of Seven-Year-Old Children from Urban and Rural Environment Based on Customs and Habits Topic Area

Summary/Abstract: The article mainly aims at revealing seven-year-old children’s knowledge of notions referring to customs and habits. The research is based on children’s opinions compared with definitions of the notions from two dictionaries: Słownik języka polskiego (The Dictionary of Polish) ed. by Witold Doroszewski (1958-1969) and Inny słownik języka polskiego (A Different Dictionary of Polish) ed. by Mirosław Bańko (2000). The dictionary definitions contain a description of mature knowledge as opposed to common knowledge of the children. The examined children expressed opinions in the form of some connotation qualities associated with a given designate. Few opinions included defining qualities, still fewer included examples of those. Definitions specifying general type were rare which indicates that seven-year-old children are not able to systematize their knowledge of the world. The conducted analysis did not show any differences in frequency of occurrence of each category of opinion between urban and rural children. The ability to define the meaning of a word depends on how clear and close to the children’s experiences the notion is. Information covering the indicated topic area turned out to be flexible and changeable. According to the contents analysis, no matter where the children live, the same words reflect similar areas of children’s experiences. Yet, rural children use more standard opinions, while urban ones apparently make more complex opinions and refer to someone else’s experiences.

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