1078: The "Do So" Test Nov 21, 2017

One way to determine when something is a verb-phrase is that it can be substituted for "do so (too)". For instance, both "walks the dog" and "walk the dog on Tuesdays" in "Yosef walks the dog on Tuesdays" are verb-phrases, which we known because one could say "...and Beth does so too (/ on Tuesday)". It is not that this test does not work for all verb-phrases exactly, but there is the problem that this works too much. In the sentence "Beth is selling her house, but Yosef could never do so", "do so" does not mean "selling her house", (or "his house", as this is not specified either) but simply "sell [his/her] house". The meaning could be essentially the same, or not, but this is not only a matter of semantics, but also one of syntax. Also, people understand that certain meaning is not carried forward with 'do so', such as "Yosef pet the cat, but he never would have done so with a dog". Since 'do so' corresponds to "pet the cat", a possible—though improbable—interpretation could be "...pet the cat with a dog" i.e. not his hand. This example relates more to semantics, but either one is an instance of the human ability to understand how—in this case—verbs are used, and have to change based on either the grammar or the literal meaning.