Do Support and Emphatic Sentences

Ed McCorduckEnglish 402--GrammarSUNY Cortland http://mccorduck.cortland.edu

Recall from lectures 12 and 14 of the “Verbs and Verb Phrases” chapter 3 lecture that be and have can both function as either main verbs (MVs) or as auxiliaries (i.e., they can fill the “aux” role; see “The Inversion Transformation” lecture). Similarly, the verb do can also function as both an MV and in several types of sentences as an aux:

slide 2: do as an MV and aux like be and have

English 402: Grammar

do as a main verb

Mr. Henpecked does windows. MV

The bone-weary tourists did Europe in ten days. MV

slide 3 do as a main verb

English 402: Grammar

do as an aux

You do not (don’t) get rich cheating the mob. (negative sentence) aux MV

Did the jackass leave a calling card? (yes/no

question)

aux MV

Where does she think she’s going? (wh-question)

aux MV

Don’t you ever come ‘round here again. (negative imperative)

aux MV

They do smell awful. (emphatic sentence)

aux MV

slide 4 do as an aux

English 402: Grammar

Each of the sentence types mentioned in the previous slide will be discussed in this lecture and forthcoming comes, and each one is formed through a transformation (see slide whatever) that is based on a simpler transformation involving the auxiliary do. This transformation is called the do-support transformation since its main purpose is to “support” the operation of other transformations by introducing auxiliary do to a string where (1) there is not already an aux (a modal or the auxiliaries be or have) and (2) the main verb of the string is not be. The do-support transformation can formulated in this way:

subj + MV ⇒ subj + DO + MV

slide 5: the do-support transformation

English 402: Grammar

The following examples illustrate the basic application of the do-support transformation in the creation of emphatic sentences from declarative sentences:

slide 6: emphatic sentences

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exx

I know judo. subj pres + MV (know) dir obj

⇒

I do know judo. subj pres + DO + MV (know) dir obj

He knows judo. subj pres + MV (know) dir obj

⇒

He does know judo. subj pres + DO + MV (know) dir obj

slide 7: examples of the application of do-support to make emphatic sentences

English 402: Grammar

They knew judo. subj past + MV (know) dir obj

⇒

They did know judo. subj past + DO + MV (know) dir obj

slide 8: example of the application of do-support to make a past-tense emphatic sentence

English 402: Grammar