Processing of L2 English Relative Clauses: Testing the Filler-Gap Hypothesis

Abstract

This study examined processing of L2 English relative clauses by testing the Filler-Gap Hypothesis (Hawkins, 1999; O'Grady 1997). For that goal, we partially replicated Diessel and Tomasello (2004), who examined L1 acquisition of relative clauses by English-and German-speaking children. The Filler-Gap Hypothesis states that the structural distance between head and gap determines the processing difficulty pertained within relative clauses. Taking this hypothesis as a theoretical starting-point, we used an elicited imitation task to tap 48 L2 learners' knowledge of English relative clauses. The results of the study demonstrated that subject relatives retained greater accuracy scores than object relatives, which in turn retained greater accuracy scores than indirect object and oblique relatives. These results were largely consistent with the predictions made by the FGH, but only partially consistent with Diessel and Tomasello's L1 data.