Needs specimen

[James E. Clapp]

Sorry if this has already been addressed/disposed of earlier in the
thread; I haven't actually been following the thread but this just
caught my eye:

Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>
> in central ohio, it is indeed frequent, and many locals do not use
> NEED/WANT V-presprt.

It's a technicality, I suppose, but surely the verb in the phrase "needs
cleaning" (or whatever) is not a present participle, but rather a
gerund.  It's the direct object.  The fact that this grammatical
construction is so basic and straightforward ("The bed needs making"; "I
need your loving": subject-verb-object) makes it seem much more
"correct" to those whose dialect uses it than "The bed needs made" or "I
need loved by you(?)" which is harder to analyze.

I assume it is a shortening of "to be made," "to be loved"; if so, then
it's not really a past participle (qua past participle) but a shortening
of the passive infinitive--i.e., another noun construction used as the
direct object.  It's just an elliptical construction that, to those not
used to it, is as "non-English" as leaving out the "to" in "I need go"
or "I want eat." (Or do those who leave out the "to be" of the passive
infinitive likewise leave out the "to" of the active infinitive in such
constructions?)

James E. Clapp