English verbs selecting Bare forms

[Robert Levine]

I agree; `daren't' definitely has an archaic flavor; what's funny too
about it is the alternative/lower-register form `dasn't'---you almost
have to be a character in a Dickens novel to be allowed to use it---
which *seems* to reflect the old Germanic r~s alternation, and has no
noncontracted analogue: *We dass not do that, *Dass we do that,
etc. `Better' is privileged ins some respects compared to the other
quasimodals, so you can get `You better (not) do that', cf. `You need
*(not) do that', `We dare *(not) do that*; but unlike these two, for
some reason it never picked up invertibility (*`Better Robin know
that?'). A very oddly-assorted lot, those cases.

Bob