ABSTRACT
If it is the case that speech and writing are two modes of language with distinct forms of syntactic and textual organization, then it becomes not only an interesting but necessary task to provide adequate descriptions of the syntax of both forms, and to investigate the influence of the syntax of speech on early stages of writing and on the gradual development of the latter in its own right. In this chapter I wish to make a beginning on both of these tasks. I cannot hope to provide the ‘adequate description’ which I am demanding. That will be the task of many people over many years. I hope to be able to provide some fundamental suggestions concerning the kinds of approach, methodology, theories, which may prove illuminating. In the process I hope to give some beginnings of descriptions of children’s speech and particularly of children’s writing. I attempt to do this by commenting on examples of children’s spoken and written texts of various ages from the point of view of the features of both forms of language discussed in the previous chapter.
