Linguistic Typology and Language Acquisition: The Accessibility Hierarchy and Relative Clauses

Abstract

Linguistic typology, together with language universals research, is not very widely invoked as a theoretical framework in which to raise questions about the language acquisition process and also to address some of the theoretical issues or problems emerging from language acquisition research. The objective of the present review article is to raise the profile of linguistic typology and language universals in the context of language acquisition research. By way of illustration, a critical review of the validity or role of the Accessibility Hierarchy (AH) in the Ll/L2 acquisition of relative clauses is provided. Moreover, factors which may interfere with the predictions made by the AH or which may have a bearing upon the acquisition of relative clauses are identified and discussed.