WANTING

This type has one independent role, the Principal, who has a certain attitude (described by the WANTING verb) towards some event or state (described by the complement clause) that is not (yet) real. The Principal is always syntactic subject of the WANTING verb.

Verbs of this type divide into a number of semantic sets (some of which have special syntactic properties): (i) want, wish (for), desire, crave, long (for), pine (for); (ii) hope (for); (iii) demand; (iv) need, require, deserve; (v) expect, wait (for) and dread (which has cross-membership of LIKING); (vi) intend, plan (for) (which has cross-membership of DECIDING), aim (for), one sense of mean, prepare (for); (vii) pretend.

We mentioned that a verb with a meaning similar to get, receive or have can be omitted from a complement clause after want; the NP following the ‘get’ verb then becomes surface object to want. This applies to all verbs from sets (i)–(iv) and to expect (but probably not to dread), e.g. I need (to get) a new pen, She deserves (to receive) a medal, I’m hoping to get/for a bit of peace this afternoon, She is expecting (to get/to be given) a horse for her birthday. Note that this omission is only possible when main clause and complement clause share the same subject, which is then omitted from the complement clause—thus, to get can be omitted from I want (to get) a new Honda, but not from I want Mary to get a new Honda.

Expect and dread may take a surface object NP in two further ways. Firstly, if main and complement clauses have different subjects then a verb with the meaning ‘come/arrive’ can be omitted from the complement clause, e.g. I expect John (to come) tomorrow, Mary always dreads the cyclone season (arriving). Secondly, there can be an ACTIVITY verb in O slot, e.g. I expected a beating (which corresponds to a passive complement clause with the same subject as expect, I expected to be beaten).

Some WANTING verbs, especially those from set (vi), may also have an activity verb in surface object slot, e.g. We’re planning a game (at the weekend), They’re planning a surprise for Mary, She’s preparing for the climb (up Everest). In most cases there is a corresponding complement clause construction, e.g. We’re planning to play a game (at the weekend), They’re planning to surprise Mary, She’s preparing to climb (up Everest).

The role of the preposition for with verbs from the WANTING type is particularly interesting. Hope, long, pine, wait, plan, aim, and prepare take for before an NP object (I’m hoping/aiming for an invitation to her party), and also retain for before the subject of a Modal (FOR) TO complement (I’m longing/aiming for Mary to invite me to stay over Christmas). There is a second group of verbs—crave, demand, deserve and dread—which do not include for before an NP object but do require it before the subject of a Modal (FOR) TO clause, e.g. He demanded a drink, He demanded for Mary to bring him a drink. (Dread may take it before a Modal (FOR) TO or before a THAT clause, by virtue of its cross-membership of the LIKING) The third group consists just of wish, taking for before an object NP and allowing the for to be either omitted or retained before the subject of a Modal (FOR) TO clause, e.g. I wish Mary to go, I wish for Mary to go. The fourth group—made up of desire, intend, mean and pretend—do not have for before an NP object but, like wish, may include or omit for before the subject of a Modal (FOR) TO complement, e.g. I intended Mary to win, I intended for Mary to win. The other verbs in the type (want, need, require and expect) do not include for before an O NP or a complement clause subject when this immediately follows the verb, e.g. I want an apple, I want Mary to give me an apple. But a for may become evident under other syntactic conditions, such as when an adverb is inserted between main clause predicate and complement clause, e.g. I want very much for Mary to give me an apple and I need more than I can say for Mary to nurse me. Another example involves optional inclusion of for when there has been anaphoric omission of the predicate, as John wanted himself to congratulate Mary, not (for) Fred to congratulate her.

All WANTING verbs may take a Modal (FOR) TO complement clause. As just described, some retain the for before the complement clause subject, some may omit or retain it, and others normally omit it. When the subject is coreferential with main clause subject, this is generally omitted (together with for)—I’m hoping for promotion, I’m hoping for Mary to promote me, I’m hoping to be promoted.

There is a kind of syntactic abbreviation that applies with order from the SPEAKING type and with most verbs from sets (i) and (iv) of the WANTING type. If a Modal (FOR) TO complement has (a) an explicit subject, and (b) predicate consisting of copula plus the past participle of a verb or an adjective, then to be may be omitted, e.g. I want her (to be) shot, I need the whole house (to be) cleaned thoroughly before the visitors arrive. Note that the complement clause subject can be coreferential with main clause subject, but may not be omitted when there is no to be, e.g. I wished myself (to be) invisible but only I wished to be invisible, not * I wished invisible. Only a limited set of participles and adjectives can occur in the complement clause of such a construction, e.g. killed, cooked, taken away, put away, begun, finished, explained, dead, well, well-dressed, tidy.

A TO clause after want or wish can be omitted when identical to what is stated in the preceding clause, as in We can do it today if you want (to (do it today)). Note that after do it today is omitted, the to can either be retained or omitted. However, when repetition goes over two utterances (rather than within one complex sentence), the to must be included; one may say No, I don’t want to but not simply *No, I don’t want.

Most verbs from the WANTING type can also accept a THAT complement clause (preposition for is again omitted before that). Since WANTING verbs refer to a state or event that is not (yet) real, it is normal for a modal to be included in a THAT complement clause. Different verbs prefer different modals, relating to their meanings; e.g. I wish that he would/I could sing, I dread that my children might leave home one day, I expect that I/he will die soon, She planned that he should stay the night, I hope that she will/may go (hope is unusual in that it commonly also occurs without a modal, e.g. I hope (that) she goes).

A THAT complement does not appear possible for want, need or prepare, and is rather marginal with crave, long, deserve and aim. It might be thought surprising that want and need—which are among the most frequently used WANTING verbs—do not take a THAT complement.

An ING complement clause is only possible with some verbs from set (vi) (and then only if complement clause subject is coreferential with main clause subject, and omitted), e.g. She intends qualifying within three years, He plans going abroad after he has finished his exams. Aim must include at before an ING clause, e.g. She aims at finishing her thesis before Easter.

A quite different variety of -ing construction occurs just with a number of verbs that are frequently found with a passive complement clause—they comprise need, require and deserve, and also a sense of want that is almost synonymous with need. This -ing construction has similar meaning to a passive TO clause with coreferential subject omission, e.g. That meat requires cooking corresponds to That meat requires to be cooked; and This brat needs/wants spanking corresponds to This brat needs/wants to be spanked. The syntactic status of cooking in That meat requires cooking is hard to ascertain. It is not an NP since we cannot insert an article, e.g. *That meat requires a cooking. (It is possible to say This brat needs/wants a spanking, with an NP object that refers to a unit of activity, e.g. going to the headmaster’s study for an institutionalized punishment, but this has a different meaning from This brat needs/wants spanking.) And cooking might not be a clause since it sounds rather odd with an adverb as in ? That meat requires cooking well—it is surely preferable to use a Modal (FOR) TO clause when an adverb is included, i.e. That meat requires to be cooked well.

A special syntactic property of some verbs from the WANTING type is that they occur with the modal be to only in the passive (and then only when no agent is stated), e.g. It is to be hoped/expected that she will win. This applies to hope (for), expect and desire and—with more marginal acceptability—to wish and dread. With verbs from other types be to may be used in the active or in the passive (with or without an agent stated), e.g. The bishop is to crown him tomorrow, He is to be crowned (by the bishop) tomorrow.

Need is basically a Secondary-B verb but has a further sense as a MODAL, and then shows quite different syntax. When used like a member of the WANTING type, need inflects for tense, takes do in negatives and questions if there is no preceding auxiliary element, and cannot omit the to complementiser, e.g. He needs to go, Does he need to go?, He doesn’t need to go. When used as a MODAL it does not inflect for tense or show -s for 3sg subject, it acts like an auxiliary verb in questions and negatives, and it does not take complementiser to, e.g. Need he go?, He needn’t go. There is a semantic difference—the Secondary-B sense relates to some inner state of the Principal (in subject relation), as in (1a), whereas the MODAL sense relates to some external circumstances as in (1b) (see also Leech 1971: 96):

(1a) I don’t need to go to the toilet (my bladder isn’t full)

(1b) I needn’t go to the toilet (no one is telling me to go)

Corresponding to its ‘external’ meaning, the MODAL sense of need is found almost exclusively in questions and negative sentences. (Dare also has modal and non-modal senses, with the same syntactic contrast and a similar meaning difference)

Most verbs from the WANTING type must have a following complement clause or NP. Wish, hope and pretend may be used without one in a suitable context, e.g. She keeps on wishing, You can but hope, Stop pretending! Expect and hope may, like some THINKING verbs, replace a post-predicate constituent by so, e.g. ‘Will John come tomorrow?’ ‘I expect/hope so’ (sc. that John will come tomorrow). Note the contrast between hope so and hope, with no following constituent in either case; the former is used for syntactic anaphoric reference to some definite constituent, e.g. that John will come tomorrow in the last example quoted, while the latter refers semantically to some general propensity of the Principal, e.g. ‘You’ll never get rich quick— win the lottery or receive a huge bequest’. ‘Well, I can hope, can’t I?’

We will now discuss the meanings of verbs in each group. Want—taking a Modal (FOR) TO complement—is directly pragmatic, referring to something which could be achieved, e.g. I want to talk to my boss this afternoon. Wish, in contrast, may have wistful overtones, relating—through a THAT complement—to something that could not possibly be realized, e.g. I wish (that) I could ask a few questions of Winston Churchill about how he fought the war. (Note that we can have make a wish but not *make a want.) Wish can be used with a Modal (FOR) TO complement and is then marked as particularly definite—compare the cold, forced demand I wish you to leave, with the more comradely (and possibly more emotional) I want you to leave. Desire is not used much as a verb in present-day English; when it is, there may be an overtone of hauteur (I desire to be informed of any change). Both want and desire are likely to have sexual implications when used with a human NP as surface object; compare the urgent and lustful I want you with the more polite and measured Oh, how I desire you! (which does invite a verbal response from the person desired). Crave describes an intense desire, often for some special foodstuff or other indulgence, which will be referred to by the O NP, e.g. I crave fresh strawberries. Long (for) has a similarly intense meaning, but covers a wider semantic range of ‘things wanted’, e.g. I long for Mary to write. Pine (for) carries the additional overtone that the well-being of the Principal is being adversely affected by their unrequited longing.

Whereas verbs of set (i) simply describe the Principal’s eagerness that something acceptable (to them) will happen, hope (for) focuses on the Principal’s thought that something acceptable may happen in the future. Demand involves the intersection of ‘say’ and ‘want’; an Addressee can be included, introduced by of, e.g. I demanded (of Mary) that she/John should clean my car.

Set (iv) has similar meaning to necessity and obligation modals, must, should, etc. But whereas the modals tend to be used when the subject should/needs to do something, need and require are often used, with a passive complement clause, when something should/needs to be done to the subject, e.g. You should encourage Mary; Mary needs to be encouraged. Set (iv), unlike other WANTING verbs, may have an inanimate Principal, e.g. The car needs to be cleaned. (As already mentioned, there is one sense of want—more frequent in colloquial than in literary speech—that is close in meaning to need, e.g. The car wants cleaning.)

Need is similar to want (in its central sense) in often conveying a sense of emotional urgency, e.g. I need my daughter to come home and look after me, whereas require has a colder, more matter-of-fact sense, e.g. I require three nurses, working in shifts, to look after me. Need often relates to the Principal’s physical and emotional state, and complement clause subject is most often the same as main clause subject, e.g. I need to be loved (compare with ?I require to be loved, which sounds most odd, although I require to be served is fine). Require only rather seldom has complement clause subject coinciding with main clause subject, and is often used to specify the necessities of social interaction and employment obligations, e.g. We require all our executives to join the superannuation fund or the notice in a doctor’s surgery, We require payment at time of consultation. Both semantically and syntactically, require shows similarities to the MAKING type and to the ORDER subtype of SPEAKING, e.g. The Sultan required/ordered/forced John to wash his feet. (Note that need can modify require, but not vice versa, e.g. ‘Do you require the chancellor to call on you, sire?’ ‘No, I don’t need to require him to call, for the simple reason that he is already here.’) Deserve relates to something that should be done to someone as a payback for their (often, but not always, meritorious) behavior; ‘same subject’ is normal, e.g. Mary deserves to win the prize, although ‘different subject’ is also possible, e.g. Mary deserves for her dog to win the prize.

Whereas hope refers to something acceptable that the Principal thinks may happen in the future, expect refers to something the Principal thinks will probably happen, and it needn’t be acceptable to them. If the Principal thinks that this future happening is something they would greatly dislike then the appropriate verb to use is dread, which involves the intersection of ‘expect’ and ‘hate’ (and is a cross-member of the LIKING type).

Set (vi) describes the Principal’s thought that they will do a certain thing in the future; the most general and neutral verb here is intend. Aim (for) implies a single-mindedness of purpose; it most often has the same subject as the complement clause (e.g. I aim to win). Mean is often used in the past tense, referring to an intention that was not in fact fulfilled, e.g. I had meant (for John) to clean the bathroom, but then forgot about it. Plan involves a set of intentions, plus detailed thought and scheming. (It also belongs to the DECIDING type and, as a member of that type, can take a WH-complement, e.g. I planned who would fire the shot.) The transitive verb prepare has the meaning ‘do what needs to be done in advance for some expected future happening’; it only takes a Modal (FOR) TO, not a THAT, complement clause. The past participle of this verb has a rather different meaning, ‘get oneself in the right frame of mind to accept some expected (and probably unpleasant) event or news’, and should perhaps be regarded as a separate lexeme. Be prepared does take a THAT complement—compare I am prepared for a long meeting, and I am prepared that the meeting will be a long one, with I have prepared for a long meeting but not *I have prepared that the meeting will be a long one.

Pretend has all the syntactic properties of a WANTING verb—it can take a THAT complement (I pretended that Mary/I was President) or a Modal (FOR) TO complement (I pretended (for) Mary to be President). If the complement clause subject is the same as main clause subject then it is omitted (I pretended to be President). The main difference from other WANTING verbs is that pretend generally refers to present or past, not to the future (its THAT complement is not expected to include a modal, as it is for other verbs from the type). But it is semantically like other WANTING verbs in referring to something that is not (yet) real.