'As this volume in the Collected Works makes clear, Halliday's interest in early language development is not just an interesting sideline, distinct from his major work in developing a systemic functional account of language. Halliday's trail-blazing and detailed study of what children progressively become able to do through acts of meaning is at the same time an attempt to understand how language gradually developed in the human species, as a resource for both construing experience and enacting interpersonal relationships. The chapters in this volume constitute an important contribution to both these agendas. Halliday's work on language development has also been instrumental in gaining recognition for the central role of linguistic meaning making in the successive phases of education, from preschool chat to academic writing. This important collection has much to offer to all social scientists and educators as well as to students of language development.'

Professor Gordon Wells, University of California Santa Cruz.

The Language of Early Childhood contains sixteen papers presented in three parts: infancy and protolanguage; the transition from child tongue to mother tongue; and early language and learning. The transcripts of Professor Halliday's sociolinguistic account of the early linguistic development of one particular child, Nigel, are included as a CD with this volume.

Professor M. A. K. Halliday (b. 1925) was Foundation Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sydney until his retirement and has taught as a Visiting Professor around the world. As a self-styled 'generalist' he has published in many branches of linguistics.

Jonathan J. Webster is Head of the Department of Chinese, Translation and Linguistics at the City University of Hong Kong.