The acquisition of negation in Early Child Polish

Abstract

The generative theory of first language acquisition predicts that with the acquisition of one functional category, children should acquire also relevant syntactic properties of the respective language. In the present study the acquisition of negation in early child Polish is investigated and, further, the process is compared with the development of finiteness as a phenomenon being the prior evidence for the implementation of a functional category in children’s grammar. The analysis of Polish child data supports the hypothesis explaining the first language acquisition in terms of a gradual development of the language structure in a child’s mind.