Needs specimen

[thomas gebhart]

Dear ADS-L-ers,

For _need + past participle_, please see Murray,
Frazer and Simon in _American Speech_, 1997. For
_want + past participle_, please see Murray and
Simon, in _American Speech_, 1999. And, if you'll
hang on for a bit longer, Murray and I are now
finishing _like + past participle_, using it as a
basis for presenting an amazingly thorough
examination of the history, settlement patterns,
and grammatical and sociolinguistic considerations
of this related set of constructions.

"low class" I know this from turn of the century
novels. But it isn't any sort of descriptive term
in ling.

best,
beth simon



Roger Shuy wrote:
>
> After 40 years as a university professor, it is disheartening to learn
> that my Ohio origin dialect, in which "needs washed" etc. was very common,
> is now assigned to "lower class." Something needs corrected here I fear.
> Roger Shuy
>
> On Fri, 10 Mar 2000, Jane Clark wrote:
>
> > I spend time in central Illinois although I no longer live there, and I have
> > never heard this except by extremely low class people. You really shouldn't
> > say it is common.
> >
> > >From: AAllan at AOL.COM
> > >Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > >To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > >Subject: Needs specimen
> > >Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2000 14:55:11 EST
> > >
> > >In central Illinois, "needs cleaned" and "needs washed" are common, but
> > >today
> > >I came across a rare "needs" specimen in a student journalist's story, with
> > >regard to the lighting for a spoken and signed production of "West Side
> > >Story":
> > >
> > >"Besides the actors, there are interpreters and hand signing that need well
> > >lighted."
> > >
> > >- Allan Metcalf
> >
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