The Functions of Auxiliary Do in Middle English Poetry: A Quantitative Study

Abstract

The higher frequency of auxiliary do in poetry than in prose in Middle English (1150-1500) is one of the puzzles of the history of this construction. Previous studies have argued that the role of auxiliary do in poems was to place the infinitive at the end of the verse to make rhyme easier. The aim of this article is to examine to what extent auxiliary do was used for rhyme purposes and, furthermore, to determine whether it had other functions. On the basis of a conditional inference tree and random forests, this paper shows that auxiliary do was indeed used as a metrical tool to place the infinitive at the end of the verse to facilitate rhyme, although the degree to which poets used auxiliary do varied from dialect to dialect. The statistical analysis reveals that the auxiliary construction served also other functions, particularly in the Eastern Midlands and Northern dialects, where do favored the integration of verbs of foreign origin and ensured the metricality of the verse by maintaining a regular distribution of the beats in the line.

A quantitative exploration of the functions of auxiliary do in Middle English

“…This particular distribution led Ellegård to assume that auxiliary do was a metrical device used by poets to manipulate the word order of the verse and allow the placement of the infinitive verb at the end of the line in order to facilitate rhyme (see, for instance, Ellegård 1953: 208). This hypothesis has been tested in a recent quantitative study, in which it has been shown that auxiliary do was indeed used as a metrical device, but that it also had other functions, such as maintaining the correct number of beats in the verse and facilitating the use of verbs borrowed from French (see Moretti 2023).…”