ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts of key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book highlights the fact that, in spite of differentiation and changes over time, space and style, some regularities can be traced in the history of English negation. Some languages seem to have undergone similar changes and to have followed paths that do not differ radically from that of English negation over its history. The book reviews these changes, and possible overall interpretations. It focuses on the seminal work by Bellugi, which is still an important reference in this particular field, and one of the most detailed works ever carried out on the acquisition of negation in English as a first language, in spite of the decades that have elapsed since it was written. The successive positioning of negation pre- and post-verbally depends on the exposure to native discourse, and not on the development of a category INFL (i.e. inflectional).
