----- Original Message -----
From: "Jan van Steenbergen" <ijzeren_jan@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Sunday, July 27, 2003 7:55 AM
Subject: Re: Question about "do"
> --- Erin Notagain skrzypszy:
>
> > "What do you want to do?" (in this sentence, the second "do" is quite
> > obviously a verb, but it just doesn't... seem to be one in the others.)
>
> Indeed, and that is simply because these are two different usages (is that
a
> word?) of the verb "do". In the first case, "do" is used like some kind of
> neutral auxiliary verb (and thus can be replaced with "will", "can",
"must",
> "may", etc.), while in the latter case it means "perform an action".
>
> > It seems that in many cases, "do" could be left out and still get the
point
> > across (however incorrect the grammar may be) -- "You want to go with
me?"
> > "I not want to." -- but it's not always the case: "What you want to do?"
> > makes sense; "What you want to?" loses some of the meaning.
>
> Yes, because the first two sentences are examples of "do" used as an
auxiliary
> verb, which is not the case in the third sentence.
>
> Dutch has the same thing with "gaan". Its standard meaning is "to go", but
its
> use as an auxiliary verb meaning "will, shall" is gaining more and more
> popularity. Certain Dutch dialects also use "doen" (to do) as an auxiliary
from
> time to time, in the way English does.
Same in most Western European languages. "I am going to eat this pie", "Je
vais manger cette tourte", "Voy a comer éste pastel". I don't thionk they do
it it German, but I may be wrong.
> Jan
>