This paper examines the history of four Chinese vernaculars which have developed written forms, and argues that five of the patterns Hanan identifies in the early development of Bai Hua can also be found in the early development of written Wu, Cantonese, and Minnan. In each of the cases studied, there is a clear pattern of early use of the…

Discusses the results of a study of utterance functions in preschool children to demonstrate that, within a certain conversation, whether social or intellectual, subjects may make both social and intellectual utterances, rendering distinction between the two types of utterances very dubious. (Author/CB)