Over the years since Chomsky introduced the notion that `Aux' is a category distinct from verbs, there have been stronger claims that `Aux' is a universal category among languages. But what does this claim imply: Is the categorial distinction between `auxiliary' verbs and main verbs sufficient to postulate the existence of a universal `Aux' node in syntactic representation? Or, is the distinction not a categorial one, but a result of gradual historical development? It is well known that there are distinctions to be found between `function' expressions and `content' expressions, and it appears that the former develop out of the latter during grammaticalization. This is a process in which a cline of decreasing contentiveness is exhibited by an item that is becoming grammaticalized. If it can be demonstrated that the auxiliaries have been formed in this way, then the case for a universal syntactic category `Aux' is weakened. This paper uses evidence from English and Japanese to show that the process has operated to create clines of grammaticality, and this constitutes evidence against the universal category `Aux'.
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