The following essays on children's spoken language are included in this volume: "Play with Language and Speech" by Catherin Garvey, "'You Fruithead': A Sociolinguistic Approach to Children's Dispute Settlement" by Donald Brenneis and Laura Lein, "From Verbal Play to Talk Story: The Role of Routines in Speech Events among Hawaiian Children" by Karen Ann Watson-Gegeo and Stephen T. Boggs, "Semantic and Expressive Elaboration in Children's Narratives" by Keith T. Kernan, "Situated Instructions: Language Socialization of School Age Children" by Jenny Cook-Gumperz, "Making It Last: Repetition in Children's Discourse" by Elinor Ochs Keenan, "'Oh Them Sheriff': A Pragmatic Analysis of Children's Responses to Questions" by John Dore, "Wait for Me, Roller Skate!" by Susan Ervin-Tripp,"Pragmatics of Directive Choice among Children," by Claudia Mitchell-Kernan and Keith T. Kernan, "Comprehension and Use of Social Rules in Pronoun Selection by Hungarian Children" by Marida Hollos, and "Acquisition of an Aspect of Communicative Competence: Learning What It Means to Talk Like a Lady" by Carole Edelsky. (JB)