The universality or locality of syntax in Persian speakers’ production of L2 negation

This paper investigated the developmental sequences of negation sentences in Persian speakers’ production of formulaic structures in their generating of English sentences. The hypothesis of this study is that Persian speakers are going to transfer the linguistic features of their native language (Persian) to a foreign language situation (English). To this end, two kinds of elicitation tasks were given to Persian speakers to find out the patterns of negative structures as they are local or universal. The first elicitation tool was a production test which was given to speakers through writing and they were required to write about the topic in which making negation sentences was a prerequisite. Another test was a multiple-choice test in which negation structures were tested. The results showed that Persian speakers’ developmental sequence of negationis different regarding the way they accomplish comprehension and recognition tests. Through these findings, it was revealed that Persian speakers show different stages in negation irrespective of what the literature proves. We can conclude that negation may not be distributed equally to all proficiency levels universally.