AUXILIARY DO IN PERIPHRASTIC CONSTRUCTIONS IN EARLY MODERN ENGLISH

The paper delves into the syntactic changes that occurred during the Early Modern English period, focusing specifically on the mandatory use of the auxiliary verb do in various sentence types, including interrogative, negative, and imperative constructions when no other auxiliary is present. This study is directed towards the process of grammaticalization across various sentence types in Early Modern English, wherein do gradually transitioned from a lexical verb to a crucial auxiliary verb integral to the sentence structure. The analysis highlights both internal linguistic factors and the social factors that played a crucial role in this transformation. The study assumes that the emergence of do as an obligatory auxiliary was not solely a result of gradual linguistic evolution; rather, it was intricately tied to the social context of the time. The sociolinguistic research discusses how social variables like age and gender influence the language variation and change. The grammaticalization is explored within the broader context of the language change, where internal pressures interacted with external social influences to propel the shift toward the Present-Day English syntactic system. The paper provides insights into how both linguistic structure and social forces can interact in shaping the development of grammatical norms in a language over time.