Development of coordination in the natural speech of young children

Natural speech of 32 young children from 2; 0 to 3; 1 (1·97 to 6·38 in MLU) was studied for evidence of use of coordination (by and). Analyses of the structure of coordinative expressions reflected development in structural variants as well as amount of coordination. Analyses suggested that early forms of coordination in natural speech reflected the same constraints which had been suggested by previous study of these children's language through an experimental elicited imitation task. A basis for a developmental theory of acquisition of coordination is sketched.