[This is part of a series of defectivity case studies.]
In an earlier post I listed some defective verbs in my idiolect. After talking with our PhD student Aidan Malanoski, I have a couple additional generalizations to note.
- Aidan is fine with infinitival BEWARE (e.g., Caesar was told to beware the Ides of March). I am not sure about this myself.
- Aidan points out that SCRAM, SHOO, and GO AWAY (we might call them, along with BEWARE, “imperative-dominant verbs”) have a similarly restricted distribution. Roughly, our judgments are:
- imperatives ok: Scram! Shoo! Go away!
- infinitives ok: Roaches started to scram when I turned the lights on. She shouted for the pigeons to shoo. The waiters couldn’t wait for them to go away.
- Gerunds marginal: Scramming would be a good idea right about now. Just going away might be the best thing.
- Other -ing participles degraded: (past continuous) Roaches started scramming when I turned the lights on. (small clause) I saw the police scramming.
- Simple pasts degraded: Roaches scrammed when I turned the lights on. (compositional reading only) He went away.
They point out that same -ing surface forms may differ in acceptability. I also note that for me shooed [s.o.] away is fine as a transitive.