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The Acquisition of Relative Clauses in a Third Language: Comparing Adults and Children

As is well known, the study of L2 acquisition provides essential insights about the language learning process in general. Approaching language learning through the study of L1 acquisition alone yields an incomplete and potentially erroneous view of the language faculty. For example, L2 study critically informs such debates as the "maturation of linguistic principles" proposed for L1 learning. Presumably, major cognitive development in the adult has ended, so observed L2 development cannot follow as a consequence of development or the lack of development in other domains of cognition. Thus, comparable patterns of development for L1 and L2 demand a linguistic explanation. Without the study of L2 learning, insights into essentially linguistic influences on development (rather than maturational or general cognitive influences) would be far more difficult to isolate. In this paper, we address one of these linguistic influences on language development: the role of earlier languages on subsequent language acquisition. We pose a particular question: is the role of a first language privileged over the role of a second language in the development of a third language (L3)? We present results that suggest that language learning is cumulative. No one language maintains a privileged role with respect to next or subsequent language learning. Results will also reveal a difference between acquisition of L3 in childhood, when other languages are still under development, and in adulthood. In this paper we focus on the acquisition of relative clauses. These structures have been well investigated in L1 acquisition research. In order to understand next language acquisition we need to have such a research anchor.