For me (transplanted New Yorker), you can beg, ask, implore, instruct, forbid, desire, or expect in that sentence, but you can’t demand.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Spruiell, William C
Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2006 3:11 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Odd "demand" construction

 

 

Every so often, I find myself in a situation in which a particular construction sounds blatantly ungrammatical to me, but not to the student I’m talking to, and isn’t one covered by any of the dialect materials I’ve read. Today, it was the following (shortened paraphrase of original):

 

            She demanded her father to let her live her own life.

 

I can’t use demand this way; it’s not (to use an older jargon term) a “raising verb.” My student, who is a native English-speaker, saw absolutely nothing wrong with it. Have any of you seen this usage before? I’m trying to figure out whether this is an idiosyncratic usage by a single student, or a dialect item I haven’t noticed before (either my student’s dialect, or a lack of the construction in mine – I speak a modified version of Alabamite).

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Bill Spruiell