Universal Grammar (UG), as it is conceived in the current principles and parameters approach to grammatical theory, may be said to contain certain default parameter values which are already in place at birth. If this is the case, then any languages which eventually show marked parameter values will necessarily involve a change in parameter settings during the L1 acquisition sequence. An indication of such a change can be signalled by a pattern of late acquisition of some feature. We will here argue that the correct placement of sentential negation with respect to modal auxiliaries in Swedish is such an example of delayed acquisition due to a parametric preference in UG. A syntactic analysis will be proposed for the four recognized stages in the acquisition of negative word order in Swedish which supports the view that a change must occur in the learner's analysis of modal auxiliaries before the last stage has been reached.
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