A Comparative Study Of Relative Clauses Acquisition In SLA Within The Frame Of Typology

A large body of literature on relative clauses in typology first and second language acquisition has shown the importance of the Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy’(NPAH) originally generalized on the basis of cross-linguistic observations, as well as some inconsistencies.The present study aims to investigate the effect of the NPAH on the acquisition of English and French relative clauses by Chinese learners and the possible interrelation between this hierarchy and the other linguistic factor animacy of noun phrases. There are180students participating in the English research,60major in Chinese major,60in accounting, and the rest in mechanical and electricity disciplines. Subjects of the French test are French major sophomores (21) and juniors (19) of Qingdao University. The major research questions addressed are:(1) whether or not Chinese English and French learners’accuracy in four types of relative clauses correspond to NPAH;(2) whether or not the semantic features (animacy of noun phrases) affect the Chinese English and French learners’ acquisition of relative clauses and how animacy affects acquisition if it does have an effect.The results have demonstrated that with regard to accessibility, both Chinese English and French learners exhibited the highest accuracy percentages in SU type of relative clauses as predicted by the NPAH. GEN relative clauses ranked second, DO or OBL ones ranked the last. With respect to the role of animacy of noun phrases, the animacy of antecedents has little effect on SU relative clause acquisition, yet it has a great impact on acquisition of other types of relative clauses, especially on the acquisition of DO and OBL relative clauses.An examination of the present research suggests that learner languages, like natural languages, are constrained by universal principle. It is argued that enhancing the dialogue between typology and second language acquisition and studying learner languages from a typological perspective can not only provide viable explanations for certain systematic learner language phenomena and confirm typological claims, but also make informing contributions to furthering and refining our understanding of linguistic facts and second language acquisition.