The meaning of expressions other than names in the language of 9 12-24-month olds was studied. The children were audiotaped or videotaped regularly from about 15 months to about 24 months. The meaning of each early word was discovered. by looking at the contexts in which the children used that word. Changes in the meaning of each word were recorded. 11That 11 , "there", "no", "more", "oh dear", "gone", "down", "up", "in", "out", "on" and "off" were studied particularly closely. "That" and/or "there" encodes the fact that the child perceives an object, that he successfully completes a plan, or that an object changes its location. "No" encodes the fact that the child does not successfully implement a plan, "more" that he intends to repeat a plan, and "oh dear" that his plan fails. "Gone" encodes the fact that the child does .not perceive an object, "down" and "up" encode downward and upward movement, "in" and "out" encode movement in to or out of a container, and "on" and "off" encode attachment and detachment. Children initially used these expressions in egocentric, action-oriented ways and later used them in more objective ways. The cognitive literature provides the basis for an account of the development of the concepts encoded by these expressions, particularly, the concepts of abstract aspects of plans, of disappearance, balance, containment and attachment. These concepts appear to be developed at around 18 months, that is,at about the same time that the words that encode them first appear. This suggests that early nonnominal expressions encode new, problematic, concepts, rather than well-established concepts. It is argued that the development of early non-nominal expressions could facilitate the development of the abstract concepts they encode. This argument may also be applied to early names.