ABSTRACT
The focus of this chapter is upon the usefulness of metaphor in language as a substantive problem for exploring theoretical concerns about the child's developing mind. Before discussing the issues per se, however, I would like to place those issues in a historical context, for the ideas to follow have developed over a long period of time. In fact, the foundation for these ideas surely was established in the courses I took as a graduate student with Charlie Spiker. Whereas he may have no sympathy with the particular theory presented, one thing he instills in all of his students is the importance of theory to the scientific endeavor. Theory, he taught, serves to specify the interesting questions, organize the research to be done, and give meaning to the data observed. Charlie, and the students who have taken his courses, will recognize the threads of his teaching woven in the fabric of what follows regardless of whether they agree or disagree with the tenets proposed.
