Contents; Preface; 1 The ontogenesis of language and learning: a survey of approaches; 2 Systemic-functional linguistics: language as social semiotic; 3 The construal of things: classification and identification; 4 The construal of events; 5 The construal of semiosis as process; 6 Cause-effect relations; 7 Learning through language; References; Index
Summary
Language is a child's major tool for learning about the world. Through the taken-for-granted interactions of everyday conversation, a child not only learns the mother tongue, but uses it as a resource for thinking and reasoning. This book presents a rich naturalistic case study of one child's use of language from two-and-a-half to five years, drawing on systemic functional theory to argue that cognitive development is essentially a linguistic process and offering a new description and interpretation of linguistic and cognitive developments during this period. The case study examines the child'
