Can an auxiliary verb have an object?
Want cannot be regarded as an auxiliary, since it requires do support for the core ‘NICE’ properties of auxiliaries:
- Negation: I don't want him to go, not *I want not him to go.
- Inversion in questions: Do you want him to go?, not *Want you him to go?
- Code: I don't want him to go, but his wife does, not *I don't want him to go, but his wife wants.
- Emphasis on polarity: He said I don't want it, but I do want it, not *He said I don't want it, but I want it.