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This collection of studies is divided into four parts. Part one is concerned with aspects of maternal communication as it relates to regulative and instructional contexts. Part two focuses on aspects of the speech of five year olds, with Hawkins examining choices within the nominal group, Turner and Pickvance examining expressions of uncertainty and tentativeness, and Robinson and Creed describing an experiment to test the effects of a language program designed by D. M. and G. Gahagan. Part three examines aspects of the speech of seven year olds: Hawkins analyzes social class differences in the use of hesitation in speech; Robinson analyzes the answering behavior of mother and children, showing the interrelationship between styles; and Turner compares the speech of five-year-old children with the same children's speech at seven years of age. Hansan and Cook in part four distinguished between code, register, and social dialect and review a range of studies which focus upon the study of social control and socialization within the family. Finally, Halliday explores his approach to the child's acquisition of the functions of language. (HOD)

THE STUDY ATTEMPTED TO RELATE THE DEGREE OF SPEECH FLUENCY TO SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS AND BEHAVIORAL PATTERNS OF THE SPEAKER. THE FORM OF THE SOCIAL RELATIONSHIP ACTED SELECTIVELY ON THE SPEECH POSSIBILITIES OF THE INDIVIDUAL AND AGAIN IN SOME WAY THESE POSSIBILITIES CONSTRAINED BEHAVIOR. THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE TRANSFORMED LANGUAGE POSSIBILITIES INTO A SPECIFIC CODE WHICH ELICITED, GENERALIZED, AND REINFORCED THOSE RELATIONSHIPS NECESSARY FOR ITS CONTINUANCE. TWO GENERAL TYPES OF CODE COULD BE DISTINGUISHED, ELABORATED AND RESTRICTED. THEY COULD BE DEFINED, ON A LINGUISTIC LEVEL, IN TERMS OF THE PROBABILITY OF PREDICTING FOR ANY ONE SPEAKER WHICH STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS WOULD BE USED TO ORGANIZE MEANING. IN THE CASE OF AN ELABORATED CODE, THE SPEAKER WOULD SELECT FROM A RELATIVELY EXTENSIVE RANGE OF ALTERNATIVES, AND THEREFORE THE PROBABILITY OF PREDICTING THE PATTERN OF ORGANIZING ELEMENTS WAS CONSIDERABLY REDUCED. IN THE CASE OF A RESTRICTED CODE THE NUMBER OF THESE ALTERNATIVES WAS OFTEN SEVERELY LIMITED, AND THE PROBABILITY OF PREDICTING THE PATTERN WAS GREATLY INCREASED.