Needs specimen

[Dennis R. Preston]

Our study of Michiganders' of a few years ago which asked them to "correct"
"needs +ppl if they did not use it themselves, and none did) resulted in an
overwhelming preference for "needs to be Ved" as opposed "to needs Ving."
(In fact, now that I look, it was exactly 65% "needs to be Ved," 13% "needs
Ving," and 11% "other" corrections. (Not supposed to add up to 100%; some
other conisderations were involved.)

dInIs



>At 01:44 AM 3/10/00 -0500, you wrote:
>>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
>
>The appropriate analogy is to "The cat wants out" or "Do you want in?"  No,
>users of these constructions do not leave out the infinitive 'to' in a V to
>V construction.
>
>BTW, as a Northerner, I usually use the gerund form "It needs
>cleaning"--which sounds as weird and "ungrammatical" to my southern Ohio
>students as "needs cleaned" does to newcomers to this area.  So it's not
>"basic and straightforward" to all!


Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736