Date:  Tue, 11 Apr 1995 07:13:35 -0500

From:  "Timothy C. Frazer" <mftcf[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UXA.ECN.BGU.EDU>

Subject: Re: needs+past participle



A few more comments on Bev Flanigan's post esp. her comment that needs +

pp. is confined to South Midland speakers:



Someone should figure out how to test this objectively. Do SM

phonological features imply the presence of neeeds + pp. or vice versa,

or is there no relationship? In other words, will someone with flattened

/ai/, or with some of the features of the Southern Shift, always have

needs + pp.? Or will needs + pp. predict SM pronunciation? I would

guess the latter not to be true, but can't prove it.



The trick here is that it's easy to elicit the pronunciation features in

a short, taped interview, but you have little control over getting needs

+ pp. The only way Murray gets his data is from an evaluative QR, which

can't elicit pronunciation.



Another point: I'll bet theres an implicational relationship between

needs + ed. and "the cat wants in."

But the latter feature seems to be more common farther north than the

former.



Another point: there is no demographic reason for needs + pp. to be

exclusively SM, since it comes from PA and is common in places like

Pittsburgh. But its possible that the inequality of attendance time in

public schools may have affected its geographic distribution in places

like Ohio; that is, public schools (which paid more attention to oral

language a century ago than now) may have stamped it out in places lke

Columbus.



Tim