ABSTRACT
It is inevitable that the words used to denote any social group will be something more than monosemic labels. Even the apparently ‘neutral’ nam ing word child evokes a range of connotations, which are the products of: repeated language patterns in large numbers of texts; the aims and inten tions of the institutions and individuals which generate these texts; and the immediate purposes and experiences of speaker and hearer, reader and writer. Some of the connotations of words and expressions connected with ‘children’ have been revealed in earlier chapters which analysed both specific instances and repeated patterns. As well as the dichotomous cat egories of ‘cherub’ and ‘demon’, which have long been noted by writers on the cultural significance of childhood, the analyses identified several other themes, including: children as ever-changing in their passage through the lifespan, both physically and psychically; children as victims and beneficiar ies of deeds and goods controlled by others; children as repositories of both innocence and enthusiasm; and children as admirably or dangerously daring and wild.
