What is a frozen room? Do you know of a book that collects the folktales that accompany false etymology? I think such a book would be interesting. I was interested in the post about" needs fixed" vs." needs to be fixed." I have a friend who taught English as a foreign language. The students, all foreigners, had to pass a test called TOEFL and that test treated "needs fixed" as a mistake. My friend found this frustrating, because she was trying to get her students to listen to the conversations
and the better students picked up this "error" because our university is located in southwest Virginia. I think our language would be well served if authorities treated regional English as correct, but I admit that half the mystery of Masterpiece Mystery is trying to figure out what the characters have said.
One commenter implied that everyone accepts "The dog wants out." Do you agree? Another construction that seems to tag along with "needs or wants ---ed" is the use of "right" to mean "very." I think we all accept "Right Reverend Smith," but what about "it's a right pretty day?"
@Airymouse Rooms become frozen if a long time (14 days) passes without anyone making a post.
@Airymouse "Needs fixed" is a regional grammatical variant, as you say. It's not an error for native speakers, but in a sense it's understandable that standardized tests for second-language learners would not consider it correct. But I think it's best for tests to avoid covering subjects like this that don't have a clear answer.
@Airymouse I would not say "the dog wants out." That is another regional variant. Adverbial "right" (if that's an accurate description of "right pretty") is also not part of my dialect.
I'm about to head to your Y.G.D.P. and I'm hoping for a map. My guess is that the area covered by the two uses will nearly coincide and will comprise central and western Pa, W.Va, southwest VA, western NC, eastern Tenn. southern Indiana, Illinois and Ohio, and perhaps western NY.
