The transitional stage of a second child – 18 months to 2 years

Two case studies have been done on the early language development of boys (without siblings), using a functional framework (Halliday, 1975; Painter, 1984). This paper will discuss the results of a case study of a second-born child, Alison, analyzed using the same methods as the above studies.

The similarities and differences between the children will be examined. They all made a functional distinction between language for learning (“Mathetic”) and language for doing (“Pragmatic”), although the distinction was expressed differently in Alison’s case. Differences were also noted in Alison’s development of Transitivity and Mood. The relevance of environmental factors will also be discussed.