"must do"

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Nov 14, 2006, at 7:15 AM, Jon Lighter wrote:

> Maybe we discussed this nuance of British "do" once before, but
> this ex. strikes me as so cotton-pickin' weird that I must vent:
>
>   1988 Peter Henry, Liv Tudge, et al., trans. _From the
> Reminiscences of Private Ivanov_ by Vsevolod Garshin (London: Angel
> Books) 27: Does it really hurt that much ? It must do.
>
>   "Must _do_"? "Must _do_"?  What the heck is that ? I see no exx.
> in OED. In theory it fits under _must_ 3.a.(a) "with following
> infinitive," but my native sense of _langue_ tells me "do" can't
> follow "must" in answer to a "do" question.
>
>   Ye Syntacticians and Grammatologists: describe !  Ye Philosophers
> of Tongues: justify if you can !

this is a very well-known difference between american and british
english, and there's a fair amount of literature about it.

the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language has a compact
discussion on pp. 100-101.  Huddleston suggests there that american
english has DO behaving like an auxiliary in what they call the Code
construction -- the construction is elliptical -- while british
english has DO behaving like a pro-form.

just two different ways of doing things.

arnold

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