However, some synonyms or near-synonyms for "demand" do take an indirect object: * She required him to... * She told him to... * She forced him to... * She commanded him to... But not: * *She demanded him to... It doesn't seem that semantics provides the explanation. ________________________ Richard Veit Department of English, UNCW -----Original Message----- From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Stahlke, Herbert F.W. Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2006 6:00 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Odd "demand" construction I think it's an analogical change. Desiderative verbs, like the ones Richard listed, generally take infinitival complements. Demand is the unusual desiderative that doesn't, and so it's not surprising to find this usage spreading. Herb -----Original Message----- From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of Veit, Richard Sent: Tue 12/5/2006 4:20 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Odd "demand" construction For me (transplanted New Yorker), you can beg, ask, implore, instruct, forbid, desire, or expect in that sentence, but you can't demand. ________________________ Richard Veit Department of English, UNCW -----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 To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/