On the origin of auxiliarydo

Abstract

Prevailing theories link the English periphrastic auxiliary verbdohistorically with Old and Middle English causativedo.I argue that these and other accounts are inconsistent with modern dialect evidence and an analysis of the historical record suggested by that evidence. The primary source of periphrasticdowas a habitual aspect marker which itself arose from the reinterpretation of bare object nominalizations as infinitive verbs.1