Kathleen S. Ulrey.
Dinner needs cooked, groceries need bought, diapers need changed, kids need bathed: Tracking the progress of need + past participle across the United States.
Master's thesis, Ball State University, Muncie, IN, 2009.
Paper
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bibtex
abstract
@mastersthesis{ulrey_dinner_2009,
address = {Muncie, IN},
title = {Dinner needs cooked, groceries need bought, diapers need changed, kids need bathed: {Tracking} the progress of need + past participle across the {United} {States}},
shorttitle = {Dinner needs cooked, groceries need bought, diapers need changed, kids need bathed},
url = {http://cardinalscholar.bsu.edu/handle/123456789/193554},
abstract = {This present research is a study on the syntactic construction “need + past participle”. Whereas the structure is thought by some to be ungrammatical, others use it as a normal part of their everyday speech. Little attention has been given to this feature, and studies on it focus almost entirely on a region of the United States called the Midland (Murray, Frazer \& Simon, 1996; Ash, 2006; Frazer 2006). This study expands the scope of research on need + past participle by searching the Access World News database for tokens throughout the lower 48 states. The findings show that it is, in fact, a dynamic element of language throughout the United States rather than a form confined to one region. Not only does it exist in regions outside of the Midland, but the trend of usage in these regions is changing. Although 20 years ago written tokens were primarily only found in the Midland, over the next two decades, such examples began appearing with increased frequency in many other states. This rise in frequency demonstrates that use of the need + past participle structure is undergoing an expansion which warrants further investigation.},
urldate = {2016-06-01},
school = {Ball State University},
author = {Ulrey, Kathleen S.},
year = {2009},
keywords = {Needs washed},
}
This present research is a study on the syntactic construction “need + past participle”. Whereas the structure is thought by some to be ungrammatical, others use it as a normal part of their everyday speech. Little attention has been given to this feature, and studies on it focus almost entirely on a region of the United States called the Midland (Murray, Frazer & Simon, 1996; Ash, 2006; Frazer 2006). This study expands the scope of research on need + past participle by searching the Access World News database for tokens throughout the lower 48 states. The findings show that it is, in fact, a dynamic element of language throughout the United States rather than a form confined to one region. Not only does it exist in regions outside of the Midland, but the trend of usage in these regions is changing. Although 20 years ago written tokens were primarily only found in the Midland, over the next two decades, such examples began appearing with increased frequency in many other states. This rise in frequency demonstrates that use of the need + past participle structure is undergoing an expansion which warrants further investigation.