An analysis of the combined data from the two interviews — before
and after the stay abroad — was carried out to ascertain whether the stay
in France made a difference to ne deletion rates. It showed a dramatic rise
in the rate of deletion. Several factors were hypothesised to affect this variable.
Among those which were shown to affect ne deletion was lexicalisation.
Whether the speaker used a lexicalised phrase like Je ne sais pas or Ce
n’est pas or Il ne faut pas, or, on the other hand, a non-lexicalised phrase, has a strong constraining effect on the deletion of ne. This is similar to the
behaviour of native speakers. However, the non-native speakers deleted
more than natives. They overgeneralised.