Date: Sun, 9 Apr 1995 15:41:00 +1300
From: "George Halliday (09)483-9039" HALLIDAYG[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]SCHOOLS.MINEDU.GOVT.NZ
Subject: needs washing
Needs washing is cited by Trudgill in International English as the English
English equivalent of needs washed. It is the form my "needs washed" is
most often corrected to in New Zealand which has a Southern English type
dialect.
The sentences in my early posting were Scots forms - probably used throughout
Scotland but specifically based on West Central Scots.
There is an interesting paper by Trudgill somewhere that explored the rejection
of various construtions in various dialects by other English speakers who
made comments such as "this construction couldn't exist in any form of English".
Among them I recall the positive anymore use recently discussed.
George Halliday