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Verbs of negative meaning are as commonly used in French as negative adverbs, and have always been during the different periods of this language models underlying this possibility of substitution appear more clearly using the theory of support verbs and predicative nouns (ex: manquer de courage is almost synonym of ne pas avoir de courage). These lexical resources have been extensively used in french over the XVIIth century. This phenomenon affects mainly constrained forms of writing such as verses and in particular dramatic alexandrine. It is linked to the large number of sentences with support verbs and rests on preferences and prohibitions. We suggest that this process eventually offers an immediately available solution, because of its obvious conveniency. Although it cannot be said to have affected the linguistic system, its influence still exists nowadays.