Need and dare: modal and lexical

Gist. Need and dare have two behaviours. As modals they have no -s, take no do and go with a bare infinitive, mostly in questions and negations: Need I say more?, He need not go, How dare you?. As lexical verbs they inflect, take do and to: He needs to go, You don't need to shout.

Conditions and exceptions. Dare even after do is often without to: don't dare go — but this is already lexical dare with a bare xcomp. I dare say is frozen. Brown considered need with a bare infinitive an auxiliary ("an auxiliary of the potential mood") — UD does the same.

Examples. You needn't shout (AUX). — You need to shout (VERB + xcomp). — He dare not come (AUX).

In UD. Modal: AUX, aux, head without mark(to). Lexical: VERB, the infinitive is xcomp with mark(to).

Sources. UD docs/_en/pos/AUX_.md (Need I say more?; You needn't shout); Brown 1851, Rule XIX, Obs. 7 (dare), Obs. 12–13 (need as auxiliary); Poutsma 1923, The Infinitive…, §§6–15 (need; vol. 2, pp. 21–30), §§16–31 (dare; pp. 31–42).

rule: en.verbal.need-aux-bare
what: modal need/dare (AUX) — no to with the infinitive
match: h[]; n[lemma=need|dare, upos=AUX, head=h]
require: none t[form=to, rel=mark, head=h]
severity: error
source: Brown 1851 Rule XIX Obs. 12; UD docs/_en/pos/AUX_.md

rule: en.verbal.need-verb-to
what: lexical need with an infinitive — with to
match: n[lemma=need, upos=VERB]; x[rel=xcomp, xpos=VB, head=n]
require: exists t[form=to, rel=mark, head=x]
severity: warn
source: Poutsma 1923 Infinitive §§6–14; UD docs/_en/pos/AUX_.md

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