Please tell me which reference are you using?
Thanks,
Diane

On Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 1:43 PM, Castilleja, Janet
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
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> 'happen to' is on my list of semi-auxiliaries from Quirk, et al.
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> Janet
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>
> -----Original Message-----
>  From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Spruiell, William C
>  Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 12:47 PM
>  To: [log in to unmask]
>  Subject: Happen to (V) -- quasimodal?
>
>
>
> I've been reading this list long enough that every time I have a question, I
> get this sneaking suspicion that it's been discussed before and I just can't
> find the thread – so apologies if I'm reheating leftovers here.
>
>
>
> In one of my grammar classes, a student asked what to do with a sentence
> like, "I happened to look up right at that moment." My reflex is to treat
> "happen to" the same way I'd treat "have to," "going to" and "ought to" – as
> a kind of modal-like combination. I'd feel better about that analysis,
> though, if I had some kind of test or set of tests I could use to identify
> quasimodals (other than instinct; I have this gut feeling that instinct will
> get me in trouble).
>
>
>
> Based on the three "acknowledged quasimodals" I mentioned above, it looks
> like one criterion might be based on transitivity. While various forms of
> "have" are transitive, there's no sense in which "I have to write a paper"
> can be construed as analogous to "I have something"; you can't "ought
> something," and you can't "go something" either unless you use the "become"
> sense of go, which doesn't seem at play in "going to write a paper," etc.
> (also, the "become" version is followed by an adjective or a noun that's
> arguably in adjectival function, as in "go bananas"). In constructions that
> seem to be drifting toward quasimodal status, but aren't in the official
> list (in that traditional grammar treats them as a main verb followed by an
> infinitival object), you can set up transitive analogues – "I want to watch
> a movie" // "I want something"; "I started to watch a movie" // "I started
> something." You can't "happen something," of course, so that supports
> treating "happens to" as a quasimodal.
>
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> Is there a different established way to treat "happens to V"?
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> Thanks in advance –
>
>
>
> Bill Spruiell
>
> Dept. of English
>
> Central Michigan University
>
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