The Origin and Development of Periphrasic Auxiliary Do : A Case of Destigmatisation

Author / Editor
Tieken-Boon van Ostade, Ingrid.

Title
The Origin and Development of Periphrasic Auxiliary Do : A Case of Destigmatisation

Published
North-Western European Language Evolution 16 (1990): 3-52.

Description
Through a largely comparative approach, the author draws on sources that have remained almost unexploited, whether dialectical or belonging to the standard language. Evidence from Dutch, Frisian, German, and Chaucer's English (a three-year-old boy's utterance in MkT) suggests that the periphrastic auxiliary has always existed as a simplified language device typical of children's language.

Chaucer Subjects
Language and Word Studies.