Answers to exercises: Chapter 6

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2(1) Dare I say that I think he offends people?To some people this sounds a little formal or old -fashioned, but a Google search alsoshowed that you can buy a t-shirt with the text:(2) How dare I wear this goddamn t-shirt in front of your f***ing kids? (Thoughthe t-shirt does not use stars!)So it is not barred from less formal language.At the same time, I found examples like this, where do-support is used:(3) How does he dare say such a thing!It is a similar mixture with negation. I found:(4) I dare not tell my parents.as well as:(5) She doesn’t dare to interrupt him.Dare seems to be used both as an auxiliary and as a lexical verb. If you are a nativespeaker, which of the sentenc es above would you naturally use? Are you a dareauxiliaryor a dare-lexical person?The data I have found so far has interesting things to tel l us about the modal statustoo. Remember that a modal combines with a bare infinitive. Compare (4), wheredare behaves like an auxiliary, and (5), where it doesn’t. You can see that , as wewould expect, it occurs without to in (4) and with a to in (5). So, when it behaves likean auxiliary, it also behaves like a modal, and the other way around.However, things are not quite that orderly. In (3), it behaves like a lexical verb in thatit requires do-support, but it does combine with a bare infinitive, so it shows mixedbehaviour. It is possible also to find examples with dare and both do-support and a toinfinitive:(6) How does he dare to sing something like that?With respect to the third person singular -s, which modals do not have, we find thesame mixed behaviour:(7) He is outraged that she dare do such a thing.(8) She dares to do things she would never do otherwise.In (7), we have the typical modal lack of -s and the verb behaves like a modal also inthat there is no to. In (8), on the other hand, we have both the -s and the infinitival to,both typical of lexical verbs. However, by now we should be used t o it not being thatneat and indeed, we get mixed behaviour, -s typical of non-modal verbs, but anabsence of to typical of modals:(9) I'm more pissed about how she dares do this crap to me.So calling dare a marginal modal definitely seems the right thing to do: its behaviourseems very mixed. What I haven’t done here is attempt to distinguish between theages of speakers or their geographical origin, but I bet a more detailed study of thatwould be interesting.Let’s turn now to ought to. The fact that we say ought to rather than ought wouldseem to indicate that it always occurs with to. However, it is not impossible to findexamples without to:(10) Maybe she ought do her own Nickel-and-Dimed-type experiment and writeabout that?Introducing English Grammar, second edition, published by Routledge © K. Börjars and K. Burridge
3Even though it tends to occur with to, as a good lexical verb should, it also tends tooccur without -s, as a good lexical verb shouldn’t:(11) She ought to brush up on her Latin.However, some people do use the -s and the to, in which case it doesn’t behave like amodal at all, at least not structurally, though its meaning is the kin d of meaning amodal would have – it is very close in meaning to should. This example is from ablog associated with the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, so USEnglish:(12) She oughts to be ashamed of how she behaved.Looking now at the more general auxiliary characteristics, like question formationand negation, I Googled for ought she to as an example of inverted order, and amongthe first ten hits were the following three examp les:(13) ‘And ought she to desert her heavenly Father, my child?’ asked the aunt,mildly.(14) When a lady opens her own door to a gentleman visitor, ought she to precedehim into the house or allow him to take precedence?(15) Ought she to spend the usual college years in a school for matrimony?The example in (13) comes from the 1820 American novel Precaution, (14) from an1892 book on etiquette and (15) from the article ‘Wherein should the education of awoman differ from that of a man’, published in The School Review in 1905. So, on thebasis of this, it looks as if treating ought as an auxiliary with respect to questionformation is a little old fashioned. However, if it were treated as a lexical verb, theequivalent would be Did she ought to …? and a search for that does not give manyproper examples. So, how do speakers form a question from She ought to brush upher Latin? I suspect they say Should she brush up her Latin?Looking at negation now, oughtn’t gives some hits, but one of them is from alanguage forum at Wordreference.com.(16) "'As you haven't asked my opinion, perhaps I oughtn't give it,'"... (Lost Horizon,P43)I can't even pronounce it. Have any of you guys ever used it or heard someoneuse it?Thanks,–Jonathan.So, there are clearly people who are not so happy with it.It fares better if we look for the full negation. W e get examples both with and withoutto:(17) Economic sanctions ought not be used to achieve foreign policy objectives.(18) A just society ought not to use the death penalty as a form of punishment.One example I found, in which ought has all structural characteristics of a modal,sounds strange to many native speakers I have asked:(19) What ought she know?It comes from a local American paper, the Reading Eagle (Reading, PA).So, ought is a marginal modal, but it is marginal in a different way from need. Manypeople would use should instead.Introducing English Grammar, second edition, published by Routledge © K. Börjars and K. Burridge
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Answers to exercises: Chapter 6

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