A Multi-Angled Analysis Of English Relative Clause Acquisition

In the field of second language acquisition, relative clause, as a common syntactic phenomenon, attracts great attention. Applied linguists make great efforts to explore the difficulty of relative clause acquisition from various aspects. Many scholars even propose the accessibility hierarchy hypotheses of relative clause acquisition. However, researchers are in disagreement with each other on the hypotheses. One dominant hypothesis is the Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy Hypothesis proposed by E. Keenan and B. Comrie inl977. This paper elicits its own accessibility hierarchy on basis of investigations. In comparison with the NPAH, the paper finds out the most difficult relative clause types. Those relative clause types and the errors identified in the experiment constitute the base for the analyses and discussions. This paper analyzes them from the perspectives of structural grammar, transformational-generative grammar and pedagogy respectively. Feasible and constructive suggestions for relative clause teaching, especially the teaching in second language classroom, are also put forward in this paper. The paper illustrates the theme of relative clause teaching from four chapters as well as introduction and conclusion.In the first chapter, some related theories are reviewed and summarized. NPAH and Markedness Differential Hypothesis (MDH) mainly constitute the theoretical background of the paper. The first chapter also presents a brief introduction of structural grammar and transformational-generative grammar, a working definition of relative clauses as well as the typology of relative clauses.In the second chapter, research questions, variables, subjects, instruments, procedures and the design of questionnaire are introduced.In the third chapter, the results of the three items investigated are presented.The last chapter is the most important part of this paper. First, the paper analyzes three difficult types of relative clauses from the perspective of structural grammar. Next, the paper analyzes the deep structures of the four relative clause types in the hope of accounting for the difficulty in relative clause acquisition. In addition, the errors are analyzed from the perspective of second language teaching. On the basis of the analyses, a series of feasible and constructive methods of teaching relative clauses are hereby put forward in the chapter, too.