In recent years research on comparative typology has led to reveal regularities and to formulate new constraints upon variation for a broad range of phenomena. As the amount of typological research increased, a growing interest arose for the implications that findings in the typological field might have on second language acquisition. Written by experts in the field of typology and/or second language acquisition, this volume addresses theoretical and empirical issues on structural domains such as relative clauses and possessive constructions as well as pragmatic considerations on information organization in learners productions.

Anna Giacalone Ramat: Introduction · Bernard Comrie: Typology and language acquisition: The case of relative clauses · Stephen Matthews and Virginia Yip: Relative clauses in early bilingual development: Transfer and universals · Giuliano Bernini: Learner varieties and language types: The case of indefinite pronouns in non-native Italian · Björn Hammarberg and Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm: Adnominal possession: combining typological and second language perspectives · Anna Giacalone Ramat: Gerunds as optional categories in second language learning · Daniel Véronique: Iconicity and finiteness in the development of early grammar in French as L2 and in French-based creoles · Yasuhiro Shirai and Yumiko Nishi: Lexicalization of aspectual structures in English and Japanese · Henriëtte Hendricks: Using nouns for reference maintenance: A seeming contradiction in L2 discourse · Rosanna Sornicola: Cross-linguistic comparison and second language acquisition: An approach to Topic and Left-detachment constuctions from the perspective of spoken language · Mary Carroll and Christane von Stutterheim: Typology and information organisation: Perspective taking and language-specific effects in the construal of events · Stefania Giannini: Typological comparison and interlanguage phonology: maps or gaps between typology and language learning of sound systems?