Abstract

represenfations of real-world objects. (Informal observations suggest that 15-month-old infants can do this.) In BABAR, this problem arose with reference to the taxicab and hotel scenes. For instance, on .pages 6-7 there is the following sentence: 12. The Babar family is waiting for a taxi. The illustration shows the Saber family standing next to a group of humans. At the extreme left is the front one-third of an automobAle with a "knob" on top which hasthe word TAXI written on it. Is it plausible to expect a picture-reader (who cannot read TAXI) to recognize that this auto is a taxi, and infer that the Babar family is waitillg for it? [It is not clear that even that inference Is invited--they could be waiting for the light to change. It may be only our knowledge that frequently when one takes a train trip (cf.. pages 4-5) one takes a. taxi to a more "specific" destination that makes this inference not unreasonable. But this is treated elsewhere.) The point is, what does an illiterate have to know about taxis to recognize this object as a taxi? Is the half-inch by three-eighths inch "knob" with letters on it enough? Does the short-billed hat on the head of fhe driver help enough? Or is it part of the meaning of taxi that taxis have "knobs" on top? The problems In the next_scene are_probably more evident. Sentences 13 and 14 read: 13. The taxi takes them to their hotel. 14. Celeste and the children walk inside. Disregarding the taxi (part of the right front fender and grill are shown), the illustration shows Celeste entering a stone or concrete edifice through one of two doors in arched doorways festooned with Neo-Gothic or Baroque or