O'Shea—The Child's Linguistic Development. 201 
so on; and it is probable that his thought is not complex enough 
to really demand these expressions. 
I have endeavored to determine just when such words as ex¬ 
cept, although, unless, lest, in order that, nor, whether — or, 
and so on, appeared in the vocabularies of my children, but I 
find I cannot speak with certainty about the matter. Of this 
I am confident, however, that none of these terms is employed 
with precision before the fifth year. V. at six and a half does 
not. use one of them intelligently, so far as I can detect 
But H. at nine uses them all fluently. She has read much, and 
has been much read to ; and it is probable that these terms have 
forced themselves into her vocabulary mainly because of their 
prominence in her reading. She has heard them in the speech 
of the people about her, and she has been correctly interpreting 
them for years; but they have all played a minor part in her 
consciousness of spoken language. So far as auditory language 
is concerned, relatively unimportant elements are swallowed up 
in wholes of greater prominence; but they are likely to gain 
some measure of individuality when reading is begun, though 
they are at the same time likely to lose it again as the reader 
gains in facility in grasping and interpreting larger and larger 
language units. It may be added that a child of five seems to be 
able to express himself definitely and fully enough without re¬ 
sorting to any of these conjunctive aids that imply quite com¬ 
plex ideational integration. If he did not find these terms ready 
to hand, and if they were not continually impressed upon him, 
I think he would not miss them, at least not until he should 
be placed in situations where he would be required to express 
involved thought very connectedly and precisely. 
6. PRONOMINAL FUNCTION IN EARLY SPEECH. 
The absence from early speech of anything which could be 
called a pronoun has attracted the attention of all students of 
linguistics, and of psychologists and philosophers as well. 
Philosophical literature is full of speculation concerning the de¬ 
velopment of self-consciousness in a child, indicated by his use 
of the personal pronoun. The philosophers, many of them, have 
