I agree, especially with your last sentence: "In "I did escape," did
is an auxiliary and escape is the main verb, not a direct object, "
and with Herb's final sentence:
"I think in 'I did escape,' "did" has to be the emphatic use of the
auxiliary verb "do," and "escape" is the main verb."  Both of these
explanations were what I had in mind when I questioned substituting a
pronoun, i.e., "it" to locate the noun in John's original sentence:
" I did escape, but my escape was short-lived."

Diane




On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 8:09 PM, Richard Veit <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> To clear up a bit of confusion about the role of do:
>
> Do can be a transitive verb (I did my homework), but it can also be an
> auxiliary verb (a.k.a. "supporting" or "helping" verb), as in "I did
> escape." As an auxiliary, do has two principal functions:
>
> It can be added for assertion or emphasis: "You never escaped." "But I did
> escape!"
> It is inserted as a dummy auxiliary when the grammar demands one as a
> place-filler. For example,
>
> For negation, we put not after the first auxiliary: I will escape/ I will
> not escape.  I have escaped / I have not escaped.  I am escaping / I am not
> escaping.  I should have been escaping / I should not have been escaping.
> When a positive sentence has no auxiliary at all (I escaped), the grammar
> requires the insertion of the dummy auxiliary do so that not can follow an
> auxiliary: I escaped / I did not escape.
> For yes/no questions, the grammar moves the first auxiliary to the front of
> the sentence: I will escape/ Will I escape?  I have escaped / Have I
> escaped?  I am escaping / Am I escaping?  I could have been escaping / Could
> I have been escaping?
> When a declarative sentence has no auxiliary (I escaped), the grammar
> requires the insertion of the dummy auxiliary do so that it has an auxiliary
> to move to the front: I escaped / Did I escape?
>
> In "I did escape," did is an auxiliary and escape is the main verb, not a
> direct object.
>
> Dick Veit
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