Re: Venn Diagram of the English Catenatives

On Tue, 27 Jan 2004 01:06:16 -0500, Ph. D. <phild@...> wrote:

>Andrew Patterson wrote:
>>
>> You can see how far I've got at:
>>
>> http://www.geocities.com/endipatterson/Catenatives2/GIF
>>
>
>I don't think I've ever heard a native English
>speaker say "ought better <verb>", as in
>
>   He ought better go to the store.
>
>However, it is common to leave out "ought":
>
>   He better go to the store.
>
>
>--Ph. D.
That's right. You may have viewed one of the incomplete versions before I
had time to put in the side notes which are essential to understanding the
diagram properly. "Ought better" is quite rare. It only exists in negative
questions like "Oughtn't we better go?" You are quite right that "He ought
better go to the store." is not possible in English. It is not possible
because it is a positive statement and "Ought better" cannot be used with
positive statements.

The complete diagram with side notes is now at:

http://www.geocities.com/endipatterson/catenative.GIF

I don't intend changing the web address again in the near future.

Thank you for commenting.

Andy