"belong to be"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Patty, "You belong in the penitentiary" sounds absolutely normal to me.

"You belong *to be* in the penitentiary" sounds borderline insane.

I'm not kidding about "borderline." Each time I think of it, it seems to
shift from clearly OK to virtually impossible.

Perhaps it's because the "to be" is logically sound but (to me)
syntactically alien.

Contrast:

1. "You belong in jail!"  (Perfectly normal.)

2. "You belong to be in jail!"  (Cue Twilight Zone theme.)

Note too how the meaning of "belong" changes from "ought to be/ should be/
deserve to be" in 1, to merely "ought/ should/ deserve" in 2.

JL

On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 12:12 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "belong to be"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Thu, Sep 22, 2011 at 10:05 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > "You *belong* to be in the penitentiary!"
>
> Cf. chapter title (quotes original):
>
> _"What We Belong to Be"_
>
> http://goo.gl/k2Aee
>
> --
> -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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>



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