Book contents
- The Acquisition of Relativization
- Series page
- Cambridge Studies in Linguistics
- The Acquisition of Relativization
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- 1Introduction
- 2The Acquisition Challenge
- 3Leading Question, Hypothesis, and Proposal
- 4The Onset of Relativization in the Young Child
- 5Experimental Test of the Hypothesis: Acquisition of English Relativization
- 6Acquisition of Relativization: French
- 7Acquisition of Relativization: Tulu
- 8Summary of Cross-Linguistic (English, French, Tulu) Experimental Results
- 9Theory of Development in Language Acquisition
- 10Conclusions
- Appendices
- References
- Index
3 - Leading Question, Hypothesis, and Proposal
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2026
Book contents
- The Acquisition of Relativization
- Series page
- Cambridge Studies in Linguistics
- The Acquisition of Relativization
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- 1Introduction
- 2The Acquisition Challenge
- 3Leading Question, Hypothesis, and Proposal
- 4The Onset of Relativization in the Young Child
- 5Experimental Test of the Hypothesis: Acquisition of English Relativization
- 6Acquisition of Relativization: French
- 7Acquisition of Relativization: Tulu
- 8Summary of Cross-Linguistic (English, French, Tulu) Experimental Results
- 9Theory of Development in Language Acquisition
- 10Conclusions
- Appendices
- References
- Index
Summary
In this chapter we introduce a proposal from the linguistic theory of relatives, one which minimally underlies all forms of relative clause formation (Kayne 1994 and subsequent work). We adopt a theoretical paradigm which moves from the study of specific relative clause structures to general principles of relativization which underlie all relatives all typological variants. We formulate the leading hypothesis that headless relativization is a developmental primitive in terms of this paradigm. This representation of Universal Grammar (UG) offers a template which relates Determiner Phrases and Complementizer Phrases, which in turn allows the acquisition of relative clause in specific language grammars.
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- The Acquisition of Relativization , pp. 27 - 36Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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