Judging from this fanwriter's specific tics I'd guess she's from Appalachia

[conuly]

The trouble is that her* characters are English.

Now, most people with the needs washed construction have no idea it's regional, and I can see how both "come with" and the plural prounouns who all and what all snuck in there without notice (but not any form of a plural you, so I guess she caught that one herself!) - but I'm a little surprised that nobody ever told her that "drug" is a nonstandard past tense.

(Why don't people with "needs washed" ever recognize that it's a regionalism?)

* Well, you know what I mean. The characters in the fanfic.

Comments

[melannen]

Huh. I don't live in PA but it never occurred to me that "needs washed" is something some people would consider wrong. Like "needs washing" it strikes me as a bit idiosyncratic but it makes perfect sense in terms of standard English grammar to me, and I absolutely would not clock it as a regionalism.

[redbird]

I didn't grow up with "needs washed," and it doesn't feel "wrong" to me, but I tend to think of it as a regionalism, like New Yorkers saying "bodega" rather than "convenience store."

[conuly]

Yeah, but it's definitely a nonstandard regionalism.

It honestly fascinates me, because so many nonstandard regionalisms are a minor point of pride for speakers who have them, but people with or adjacent to needs washed just don't even realize. I'm genuinely not sure how they all have this one weird blind spot.

[melannen]

I'm still struggling with how it's even nonstandard! If you can put a present participle there, why not a past participle??

[conuly]

Oh, don’t try to apply logic! That will never end well.

[melannen]

Well, I suspect that's why people who have it don't clock it as a regionalism, *not* accepting is the weird one :P