I have recently been encountering sentences like
"I have a bed that needs made."
"You have a face that needs punched."
Is this proper grammar, and if so; is there a name for this construction?
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1I remember seeing this in another question, and I think it turned out to be some PA (or maybe OH) dialect. Found it– Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_Jul 15, 2018 at 17:04
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This is a feature of some central/western Pennsylvania speakers. See e.g. How are “needs to be washed,” “needs washing,” and the regional variant “needs washed” to be distinguished"? and Central Pennsylvanian English speakers: what are the limitations on the “needs washed” construction?– chosterJul 15, 2018 at 17:08
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I've encountered this in textual releases written in Chicago by a semi-major company, though. Does it reach that far West?– Weckar E.Jul 15, 2018 at 17:09
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People don't automatically change their accents when they move. People from various dialect areas live all over the US. Geography is not nearly as relevant for grammar variation as social and economic class. See also this answer for more on the idiom.– John LawlerJul 15, 2018 at 17:11
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@cascabel is it a duplicate if that question answers this one, but its answers are irrelevant?– Weckar E.Jul 15, 2018 at 17:23
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2 Answers
In the following from “Yale Grammatical Diversity Project English in North America” they explain the regional usage of the need + pp construction.
The needs washed construction consists of a form of the verb need (or want or like) followed by a passive participle. For example, in sentence (1), needs repaired is an example of this construction; it has needs as its form of need followed by repaired as its passive participle:
1) The car needs repaired.
In standard English, (1) would not be acceptable. Instead, repaired would either need to become an infinitive (a verb form with to), as in (2a), or a gerund (a verbal noun ending in -ing), as in (2b):
2a. The car needs to be repaired.
2b. The car needs repairing.
The most common verb associated with this construction is need. However, Murray and Simon (2002) show that want and like are sometimes possible as well:
Murray and Simon (2002) describe the rough boundaries as Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, Northern West Virginia, and Central Indiana.
Pockets of speakers may exist in places as far-spread as Kentucky and Illinois. This construction is also attested in Scots English, which might be its historical source.
According to Murray and Simon (1999), the need/want + V-en construction displays sensitivity to no significant sociolinguistic factors other than race, and they say that "white [people] favor the construction significantly more than black" people (pp. 149). Murray and Simon (2002) found that unlike white speakers, virtually no black speakers accept like + V-en.
answered Jul 15, 2018 at 17:11
Your sentences are examples of what some linguists call the 'needs washed' construction. (The baby's face needs washed). It is not standard English, and appears to be an American (US) regional dialect construction. According to some linguists, its use is mainly by white people in an area whose boundaries are Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, Northern West Virginia, and Central Indiana. Pockets of speakers may exist in places as far-spread as Kentucky and Illinois.
answered Jul 15, 2018 at 17:13
