The Functional Development of Language in a Child of Two-and-a-Half Years

A functional model of child language development put forth by Halliday (forthcoming) is applied to the speech of a 30 month old child. The functional system postulated for a child just beginning to speak no longer applies, but the principle of functional analysis is extended in other directions. An investigation of the language of control at this stage of development shows that the child has an extremely rich repertoire of verbal techniques for control. An analysis of these supports the notion that language is as it is at least partly because of the uses to which it is put, though the fit between functional and structural options is not complete and cannot be exhaustively analysed within a unified functional-syntactic system.