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Article published In: Linguistics in the Netherlands 2023
Edited by Sterre Leufkens and Marco Bril
[Linguistics in the Netherlands 40] 2023
► pp. 210–229

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On the acceptability of the not so dummy auxiliary ‘do’ in Dutch

 | Radboud University
 | Radboud University
 | Radboud University | Max Planck Institute for PsycholinguisticsNijmegen
 | Radboud University
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with Radboud University Nijmegen.

Published online: 3 November 2023
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https://doi.org/10.1075/avt.00088.ser
Abstract
The auxiliary doen ‘do’ in standard Dutch is usually described as ‘dummy’ because it supposedly adds nothing substantial to the meaning of the sentence. We argue, however, that the auxiliary does have a function in the sentence, as a marker of either habitual or intentional aspect. In an online production experiment, we investigated the acceptability of the allegedly dummy auxiliary doen ‘do’. Results show that the degree of acceptability of the auxiliary doen ‘do’ is very low, even lower than the widely disapproved use of hun ‘them’ as a subject in Dutch. However, because a significant difference was found in the acceptability between the habitual and the intentional reading, we conclude that the auxiliary doen ‘do’ in Dutch cannot be dummy, i.e. semantically empty.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Exploring the two meanings of the Dutch auxiliary ‘do’
  • 3.Acceptability judgment experiment
    • 3.1Methodology
      • 3.1.1Participants
      • 3.1.2Materials
      • 3.1.3Procedure
      • 3.1.4Analysis
    • 3.2Results
      • 3.2.1Habitual vs. intentional function of Doen
      • 3.2.2Doen vs. een van de vs. hun
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (26)
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