a construction that could use (to be) studied

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Tue Jul 24 06:23:13 UTC 2012


On Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 9:49 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> Sure, the noun is easy, but I can get verbal participles too:  "The car could use washing", "The floor could use polishing", "My office could use straightening up".  But not "could use (to be) straightened up".

I agree with you on this, too.

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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