The pattern of acquisition for relative clauses (the “accessibility hierarchy” for relative clause in English):
- Subject (‘The girl who was sick went home’)
- Direct object (‘The story that/which I read was long’)
- Indirect object (‘The man who[m] I gave the present to was absent’)
-Object of preposition (‘I found the book that John was talking about’)
- Possessive (‘I know the woman whose father is visiting’)
-Object of comparison (‘The person that Susan is taller than is Mary’)