The Comprehension of Negation: A Comparative Analysis of English and Macedonian Speaking Preschool Children

Abstract
This study aims to investigate preschool children’s comprehension of simple and complex negative
constructions in Macedonian and English, with particular attention to developmental and cross-linguistic
differences. By comparing children acquiring two typologically distinct systems of negation—English as
a double negation language and Macedonian as a negative concord language—the research seeks to
examine how linguistic structure influences the acquisition and interpretation of negation during early
language development.
This study employs an experimental, comparative methodology to examine preschool children’s
comprehension of negative constructions in Macedonian and English. The primary data were collected
from ten Macedonian-speaking preschool children aged 3 to 6;5 years, divided into two age groups (3
4 and 4;5–6;5). Participants were presented with grammatically acceptable and unacceptable simple
and complex negative sentences to assess their interpretative abilities. The findings were subsequently
compared with data reported by Thornton et al. (2016) on 24 English-speaking preschool children of a
comparable age range.
The findings indicate age-related differences in the comprehension of negation among preschool
children. Older participants demonstrated greater accuracy and efficiency in interpreting structurally
complex negative sentences, whereas younger children showed stronger comprehension of simple
negation but experienced considerable difficulty with more complex forms. Cross-linguistic comparison
suggests that, despite typological differences between English and Macedonian systems of negation,
children exhibit similar developmental patterns, with language-specific structures gradually emerging
through exposure and linguistic experience.
Keywords: negation, preschool children, language acquisition, negative concord, syntactic
development