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Negation, Infinitives, and Heads

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Book cover The Acquisition of Scrambling and Cliticization

Part of the book series: Studies in Theoretical Psycholinguistics ((SITP,volume 26))

Abstract

In recent acquisition research, the position of the verb relative to the negation particle has been used to argue for the early existence of verb movement in children’s grammars of French, German, and other languages. The argument is based on the well-established distribution of finite and nonfinite verbs with respect to the negative particle in child French and child German. Pierce (1989, 1992) demonstrated that French children place the nonfinite verb after the negative particle pas,but place finite verbs before this particle at a surprisingly early age and almost without errors:

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Geneva, Switzerland

    Cornelia Hamann

  2. University of Tuebingen, Germany

    Cornelia Hamann

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  1. Cornelia Hamann
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Potsdam, Germany

    Susan M. Powers

  2. University of Geneva, Switzerland

    Cornelia Hamann

  3. University of Tübingen, Germany

    Cornelia Hamann

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Hamann, C. (2000). Negation, Infinitives, and Heads. In: Powers, S.M., Hamann, C. (eds) The Acquisition of Scrambling and Cliticization. Studies in Theoretical Psycholinguistics, vol 26. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3232-1_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3232-1_16

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-5432-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-3232-1

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