‘happen to’ is on my list of semi-auxiliaries from Quirk, et al.

 

Janet

 

-----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.

 

Is there a different established way to treat “happens to V”?

 

Thanks in advance –

 

Bill Spruiell

Dept. of English

Central Michigan University