STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 443 



child extends an idea obtained from tlie most impressive experi- 

 ence of childish difficulty viz., " too big," so as to make it express 

 the abstract notion " too difficult " in general. 



In this extension of language by the child we may discern, 

 along with this play of the feeling for similarity, the working of 

 association. This is illustrated by the case of Darwin's grand- 

 child, who, when just beginning to speak, used the common sign 

 " quack " for duck, then extended it to water ; following up this 

 associative transference by a double process of generalization, 

 using the sound so as to include all birds and insects on the one 

 hand and all fluid substances on the other.* The transference of 

 the name from the animal to the water is a striking example of 

 the tendency of the young mind to view things which are pre- 

 sented together as belonging one to another and in a manner 

 identical. Another curious instance is given by Prof. Minto, in 

 which a child who applied the word " mambro " to her nurse 

 went on to extend it by associative transference to the nurse's 

 sewing machine, then by analogy applied it to a hand-organ in the 

 street, then through an association of hand-organ with monkey 

 to its India-rubber monkey, and so forth. Here we have a whole 

 history of changes of word-meaning, illustrating in curious equal 

 measure the play of assimilation and of association, and falling 

 within a period of two years, f 



There seems to be a like impulse to identify things which are 

 closely conjoined in experience, as the extension of the word 



"" spend " by the boy C so as to make it cover the idea of 



^' costing." In like manner a child has been known to use 

 " learn " for teach. In other cases we see a similar tendency to 

 transfer a name from cause to effect, and vice versa. Thus, a 

 little girl of four called her parasol when blown by the wind 

 '" windy," and the stone that made her hand sore a " very sore 

 stone." In all these cases of transference it is evident that we 

 have to do with two parts of a whole process, two aspects of one 

 relation. 



Here, again, one suspects the child is illustrating a common 

 tendency in the growth of language. The etymological connec- 

 tion between the words teach and learn in German {lehren, 

 lernen) shows that the human mind is apt to give a common 

 name to closely related things. A west-of-England yokel still 

 talks of " learning me " i. e., " teaching me." 



There is much, indeed, in the whole of these changes intro- 

 duced by the child into our language which may remind one of 

 the changes which go on in the growth of languages in commu- 



* Quoted by Romanes, Mental Evolution in Man, p. 283. 

 f Logic (University Extension Manuals), pp. 83, 84. ' 



