Written Language Bias in Children's Conceptualization of Synonyms

This paper explores the understanding of the dual designation of synonyms by children aged between 4 and 7 years, and discusses the acceptance of its equivalence in two conditions: in oral conversation and use of written labels. In both conditions a question of acceptances of equivalance was added. Only in the second condition was the reference incluided to what was written. The results showed the restrictive influence of written acceptance of synonyms and evidence about child reasoning with respect to the correspondence between names and references. It was found that the double designation does not function the same way in oral as to which it is written. Written condition requires a metalingual reflection that demands consideration of the names in its autonymy function and not only on the reference.