Abstract We examine VP-anaphoric uses of Norwegian gjøre det ‘do it’ and argue that ‘surface’ and ‘deep’ anaphoric uses of gjøre det can be distinguished. We suggest that this ambiguity is connected to the special use of det as a verbal anaphor; this special use of det, which we mark dets, is distinct from the usual pronoun det (detd) in that it fails to undergo Object Shift. Using this as a diagnostic, we show that the deep anaphoric gjøre det really behaves like any lexical verb plus a pronominal direct object (i.e., gjøre detd, ‘do it’). In the case of the surface anaphoric gjøre det, it is more as if gjøre is a light verb (it shows no aktionsart restrictions) and dets is a predicate anaphor of a special kind: it selects for an elided verbal projection. Its anaphoric properties are thus indirect, as a result of the more general requirement that elided material have a certain kind of antecedent.