Date:  Mon, 31 Oct 1994 10:26:32 EST

From:  "Betty S. Phillips" <EJPHILL[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ROOT.INDSTATE.EDU>

Subject: Re: needs+pp



I will add my anecdote about needs + pp. As a graduate student at

UGA, I had a professor point out that needs + V-ing was the Southern

usage, not needs + pp. They both sounded OK to me--a native south

Georgian. So I polled my brother and sister: "The car is dirty. It

needs ______." Both insisted on "washing" and totally rejected

"washed." Then I asked my Wisconsin mother (Platteville, to be

specific). She replied with "washed." I could only conclude that I

must have been more influenced by my mother's dialect than they

had been. A parent's dialect can indeed make a difference.



Betty Phillips

Eng. Dept.

Indiana State U.

Terre Haute, IN 47809