This corpus study explores the use of the particle 'ne' in spoken modern French in relation to a number of linguistic factors, such as morpho-phonological processes and negative polarity contexts....Show moreThis corpus study explores the use of the particle 'ne' in spoken modern French in relation to a number of linguistic factors, such as morpho-phonological processes and negative polarity contexts. In particular, the study aims to investigate the link between the possible presence/absence of the particle 'ne' and the use of a negative expression as a negative polarity item. This hypothesis was rejected based on a large amount of data, and a new one was suggested in which we suppose that there might be a connection between clitics and the appearance of a null particle 'ne'. The study was based on a very large corpus, ESLO2, and provides a clear overview of the relevant literature and the data examined.Show less