Date:  Mon, 20 Jun 1994 17:38:30 -0500

From:  mftcf[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UXA.ECN.BGU.EDU

Subject: Re: needs + p.p.



On Mon, 20 Jun 1994, Martha Howard wrote:



> Tim Frazer, I read in PADS about your paper on needs + p.p. That usage

> was one that really bothered my husband and me when we moved to WV from

> Michigan.

> Especially when one principal forwhom I worked (in 1950, WVU had a nepotism

> rule which meant that I could not teach at the university since my husband

> did. I ended up for six years teaching in ajunior high)



I'm glad we're rid of those. June and i left Millikin U because they had

one & we got married.



 told me that my

> students" lockers needed cleaned. Then we heard our son remark that his

> hair needed washed. After both his parents exploded, much to the poor child's

> amazement, it is a wonder he ever washed his hair again. During the teen year

> I wasn't sure he did. He always wore a baseball cap! Back to the point. In

> trying to figure out where the usage came from, I isolated it (then) to sw

> Pa., WV, and areas influenced by Pennsylvania Dutch. In German, the verbe

> for need--brauchen--is one that does not take the infinitive after it--it

> takes the past participle. Therefore, I decided in my infinite wisdom that

> the usage was a transferral of German grammar to

> English. How's that for what Marckwardt taught us was "folk" etymology!



There's been a lot of debate over the German vs. Scotch origin of Midland

dialect forms. After Kurath said that "the cat wants in" etc. was from

German, someone--I can't remember who--countered pretty convincingly that

it had to be Scotch irish. Anyone remember that article?





> Probably no validity to it at all, but it does sound logical, somehow. Wish

> I could be in Chicago to hear your paper. Occasionally, I get homesick for the

> Midwest, esp. Chicago, where I was born.



Next best thing is to get a copy of the paper from MMLA (Midwest Modern

Language Association); I think the address is in the Newsletter. Al the

papers for that conference are distributed out in advance. If you can't

get one well send you one next fall.