2083: Im-parsable Verbs Aug 28, 2020

There are certain instances when a contraction can’t be used, such as at the end of “that’s just the sort of nice man *he’s”. The reason for this is because there are multiple uses of certain types of verbs including ‘have’, ‘do’, and ‘be’. It is not for that same principle though in the reverse as to why it doesn’t work. The imperative verb ‘don’t’ in “don’t you dare!” cannot be parsed further into “do not you dare” because it is idiomatic, but in “do not/don’t go in there!” this makes no difference. The reason is actually because imperative verbs, verbs that give a direct command, don’t have a subject, and to include a subject one would need to add a different, modal verb “you must not dare”. Dare is actually somewhat of an exceptional verb, so check out more here.

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