Of course, this statement is put too generally. Strictly speaking, the distribution of hoeven is not restricted to negative sentences only; hoeven can also occur in comparative constructions, in relative clauses with voordat (before), et cetera. At this early age, however, these constructions do not occur yet in the children's speech. The expectation is thus that - if hoeven now is correctly used as an NPI verb in the children's speech - it will appear in negative sentences only.

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