Do Support and Emphatic Sentences Ed McCorduck English 402--Grammar SUNY Cortland http://mccorduck.cortland.edu

slide 2: do as an MV and aux like be and have 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: English 402: Grammar

Mr. Henpecked does windows. slide 3 do as a main verb do as a main verb Mr. Henpecked does windows. MV The bone-weary tourists did Europe in ten days. English 402: Grammar

You do not (don’t) get rich cheating the mob. (negative sentence) slide 4 do as an aux 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 English 402: Grammar

slide 5: the do-support transformation 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 English 402: Grammar 5

slide 6: emphatic sentences The following examples illustrate the basic application of the do-support transformation in the creation of emphatic sentences from declarative sentences: English 402: Grammar 6

He knows judo. exx I know judo. ⇒ I do know judo. He does know judo. slide 7: examples of the application of do-support to make emphatic sentences exx I know judo. subj pres + MV (know) dir obj ⇒ I do know judo. subj pres + DO + MV (know) dir obj He knows judo. He does know judo. subj pres + DO + MV (know) dir obj English 402: Grammar

They knew judo. ⇒ They did know judo. slide 8: example of the application of do-support to make a past-tense emphatic sentence They knew judo. subj past + MV (know) dir obj ⇒ They did know judo. subj past + DO + MV (know) dir obj English 402: Grammar