The semantic development of negation: a cross-linguistic longitudinal study

Abstract

ABSTRACT Negative utterances were collected longitudinally from two English-, five French- and four Korean-speaking children between 1;7 and 3;4. An analysis focusing on both non-verbal context and linguistic form led to the distinction of nine semantic/pragmatic categories which could capture cognitive and linguistic development in some detail: non-existence, prohibition, rejection, failure, denial, inability, epis-temic negation, normative and inferential negation. The nine categories were found in all three languages and their developmental order was similar across the languages. Different patterns were shown concerning the form-function relationship for different categories; for some categories, the distinct form emerged gradually after the function was acquired, while for others, the distinct form emerged simultaneously with the new function. Thus new forms emerged to subdivide an old category or to express a new function. This pattern was most typical for categories developed at later periods. It is suggested that whereas cognitive development precedes language development at an early period, at later periods cognitive and language development interact with each other.

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