The Rise and Fall of Periphrastic do in Affirmative Declaratives: A Grammar Efficiency Model

Abstract

The concept of grammar efficiency is used to model the historical development of periphrastic do constructions in different types of English sentences. The models use the data collected by Ellegård (1953) and thus combine quantitative and formal approaches to linguistics. The primary focus of the paper is on affirmative declarative sentences, which show a different development of periphrastic do from other sentence types. The difference is explained when emphatic do is included in the models of the change affecting affirmative declaratives. It is shown that emphatic do was indeed an important factor of the change.