Mark J. Reed wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 22, 2004 at 04:17:58PM +0100, Andreas Johansson wrote:
> > I was intending to include a meta-comment on the verbal cluster the the
first
> > sentence of the above paragraph, to the effect it robs anglophones of
the
> > right to complain about lengthy verb strings in German (and Swedish, for
that
> > matter), but refrained to, since on further reflection I'm not positive
it's
> > kosher English. So I'll content myself with a meta-meta-comment.
>
> I'm pretty sure "would have ought to be" isn't kosher, if only because
> "ought" is a defective verb with no past participle form.
>
Right up there with "might could" though that comes in handy........ Nor
does ought properly combine with the other auxiliaries will/would etc. or
tenses be/have (except dial. had(n't) oughta...). In Perfect English,
Andreas ought to have written "NP ought to have been...."