plot(x,y, xlim=c(-0.5, 1.2), axes=FALSE, pch=19, ylim=c(0,8))
axis(1, pos=0)
axis(2, pos=0, at=0:8, labels=c("",1:8) )
The trick needed to get the axis(2,...) call to construct a line that made it all the way to (0,0) was to add the ylim argument. Otherwise the plot area was not large enought to support the range of axis values that you asked for.
