In the following, the phenomenon ‘do-support’ will be explained as well as the history of its development. Furthermore, the linguistic concepts in which ‘do-support’ appears will be presented and why this paper focuses on ‘do-support’ in questions and answers. Our study shows how our hypotheses have been proven right and the elicitation methods investigated will be explained in detail. In the presentation and interpretation of our results will follow a short overview of related linguistic themes that appeared in the study.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
MAIN PART
I. The linguistic phenomenon ,do-support’
II. History of ‘do-support’
III. The study
III.1 Elicitation methods
III. 2 Results of the study – descprition and interpretation
III.3 How can the results be used in teaching ,do-support’ to beginners?
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
APPENDIX
Research Objectives and Themes
The paper investigates the challenges German learners of English face regarding the use of 'do-support' in basic negation and interrogation. The primary goal is to examine whether beginners can correctly apply this grammatical structure in production tasks versus recognizing it through grammaticality judgement, based on an empirical study of 80 school pupils.
- The linguistic function of 'do-support' as a 'dummy' auxiliary.
- Historical development of 'do-support' in the English language.
- Comparative analysis of production and grammaticality judgement skills.
- Common stumbling blocks for German learners of English.
- Pedagogical approaches for teaching 'do-support' to beginners.
Excerpt from the Book
I. The linguistic phenomenon ‚do-support’
The term ‘do-support’ refers to the verb ‘do’ (which also includes ‘did’ and ‘does’) as an auxiliary verb to produce negation, interrogation as well as ellipsis and emphasis (cf. Culicover 2008:2). The main verb in a sentence carries meaning and therefore is semantically relevant. But the auxiliary does not do so, therefore it is called a ‘dummy’ (cf. Frank 1985: 7; Quirk 1985: 80). However, it adds a grammatical meaning in the sense that it is syntactically required for a proper English sentence (cf. Radford 2004: 177-178). In this case, an “auxiliary is an obligatory component which must always comprise the feature tense [...] and may comprise a modal [can, will etc.]” (Frank 1985: 4). Moreover, a verb itself does not permit inversion and therefore do-support is required in such cases in which verbs cannot invert (cf. Radford 2004:48).
Additionally, “auxiliaries can generally be directly negated by a following ‘not’ ” (Radford 2004: 48-49), as shown in the following example (3), whereas verbs cannot be directly negated, shown in (4).
(3) ‘They do not/don’t like me.’
(4) *‘They like not/liken’t me.
This clearly shows that in present-day English ‘do-support’ is required in negative declaratives for lexical verbs (cf. Han 2013: 14).
Summary of Chapters
INTRODUCTION: Outlines the research problem, introduces the concept of 'do-support' as a challenge for German learners, and states the two main hypotheses regarding production and grammaticality judgement.
MAIN PART: Provides the linguistic definition of 'do-support', explores its historical development from Old English to Modern English, details the elicitation methods used in the study, presents the quantitative results, and discusses implications for language teaching.
CONCLUSION: Summarizes that the hypotheses were confirmed, highlighting that while 'do-support' remains a challenge for beginners, exposure through everyday media may support grammaticality judgement skills.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Lists the academic sources and linguistic literature referenced throughout the study.
APPENDIX: Contains the questionnaire, raw data, and tables illustrating the study results.
Keywords
do-support, English language learning, L2 acquisition, German learners, syntax, linguistics, dummy auxiliary, grammaticality judgement, production, English grammar, historical development, negation, interrogation, beginners, language pedagogy.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core subject of this paper?
The paper examines the phenomenon of 'do-support' in English and the specific difficulties German-speaking learners face when using this structure.
What are the primary themes discussed?
The study covers the linguistic definition of 'do-support', its historical emergence as an auxiliary verb, and the practical application of this knowledge by German grammar school pupils.
What is the main research question or objective?
The objective is to determine how well German beginners handle 'do-support' and to test if they struggle more with actively producing the structure than with identifying incorrect usage in given sentences.
Which scientific methodology is employed?
The author uses a quantitative empirical approach, conducting a survey with 80 German school pupils (aged 12-14) who completed production tasks and grammaticality judgement tests.
What is covered in the main part?
The main part includes a linguistic analysis, a historical overview of how 'do' became an auxiliary, the methodology of the student questionnaire, and a detailed analysis of the gathered data.
Which keywords best characterize this work?
Key terms include 'do-support', language acquisition, L2 learners, syntax, English as a foreign language, and empirical linguistic analysis.
Why is 'do-support' considered a 'dummy' verb?
It is called a 'dummy' because it carries no semantic meaning itself; it serves a purely syntactic function required to form negations or questions in Modern English.
How does the historical background explain the existence of 'do-support'?
The paper explains that 'do-support' emerged during the Middle English period, largely influenced by the grammatical simplification that occurred after Scandinavian contact, which moved the language away from the complex inflectional system found in Old English/German.
What was the key finding regarding production versus judgement?
The study found that learners have fewer problems with grammaticality judgement (recognizing errors) than with active production (using the structure correctly in written tasks).
What pedagogical advice does the author provide?
The author suggests that teachers should explicitly contrast the syntactic structures of English and German to highlight the necessity of 'do-support' and use repetitive practice to build learner confidence.
- Quote paper
- Janina Madlener (Author), 2014, The Phenomenon of "do-support", Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/415672
