Comprehension of Negation in Child and Adult Speakers of Spanish and German (C06)

我们的项目调查了这样一个假设，即否定的形式句法表达的跨语言差异会导致不同语言在类型上不同的语言中对否定的处理和习得方式的差异。具体地说，我们比较了德语和西班牙语中的否定：在西班牙语中，否定词的表层位置在句子的早期，在限定动词之前。在德语中，否定词出现的时间较晚，出现在限定动词之后。此外，西班牙语中的句子否定仅限于一个动词前的位置，而德语中的句子否定词可能出现在不同的表层位置。我们考察了这些跨语言差异是否会影响成人的理解和儿童的习得。

Our project investigates the assumption that cross-linguistic differences in the morphosyntactic expression of negation can lead to differences in how negation is processed and acquired in typologically different languages. Specifically, we compare negation in German and Spanish: in Spanish, the surface position of the negator is early in the sentence, before the finite verb. In German, the negator appears late and after the finite verb. Moreover, sentential negation in Spanish is restricted to one, preverbal, position, whereas the sentential negator in German may appear in different surface positions. We examine whether these cross-linguistic differences affect adult comprehension and child acquisition.