Children and adults speaking English, Hungarian, and Italian were asked to describe sets of pictures which manipulated the pragmatic category of givenness. The working hypothesis was that there exist rule-governed relations between the perception of certain categorical aspects of the communicative situation and the use of certain conventional linguistic devices. A set of predictions regarding the use of eight linguistic devices was derived from Prague School functionalist theory. The results indicated: (1) very early learning of the pragmatic function of the devices, (2) differentiation with age in the absolute level of use of the devices, (3) differences in the relations of the various devices to the manipulation of givenness, and (4) baseline effects in the use of the devices. (Author/CLK)