Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 April 2007
One of the authors of this commentary conducted her dissertation research (Gass, 1979) on relative clause (RC) acquisition and, with the exception of a pedagogical intervention study (Gass, 1982), has since then participated in the discussion of RC acquisition only from afar. Therefore, the opportunity to provide commentary is particularly welcome. The framework adopted in Gass' earlier work was the earliest formulation of the Keenan and Comrie (1977) noun phrase accessibility hierarchy (NPAH). In what follows, we build on and extend that earlier work within the context of SLA.