Usage of "to be done"

Question

The following is a transcript of the well-known recorded lecture by Prof. Michael Sandel of Harvard University (the cited portion starts at 43:36):

The only argument this painter makes is that the work was necessary to be done. But this is no good answer, because by the same rule, this painter may go through every house in Edinburgh and do what he thinks proper to be done without the landlord's consent, and give the same reason that the work was necessary and that house was the better for it.

For easy reference, I'll number the sentences as follows:

1. "The work was necessary to be done."

2. "This painter may do what he thinks proper to be done without the landlord's consent."

Here're my questions:

Is (1) ungrammatical, grammatical but awkward, or natural?

How about (2)?

If you find (1) or (2) awkward or ungrammatical, how would you rewrite them?

Answer 1

Such usage is not unprecedented. The Oxford English Dictionary has at least two citations which include necessary to be done. It might be objected that they are from the eighteenth century, but the OED itself, in its definition 33a for do, uses proper or necessary to be done. Moreover, the Corpus of Contemporary American English has four citations for necessary to be done and the British National Corpus, one.

Whether or not the sentences are grammatical, they are not particularly elegant or effective. Alternatives for the first might be:

The only argument this painter makes is that the work was necessary.

The only argument this painter makes is that the work needed to be done.

Alternatives for the second might be:

. . . this painter may go through every house in Edinburgh and do what he thinks proper without the landlord's consent . . .

. . . this painter may go through every house in Edinburgh and do what he thinks it is proper to do without the landlord's consent . . .

Answer 2

The first sentence is not grammatical. (Be) necessary is not a predicate that allows A-Raising, which is what would raise the subject of be done to the position of subject of be necessary.

It's not the work that's necessary; it's someone doing the work. I.e, the work starts off as the object of do, gets passivized to the subject of be done. The derivation starts off as

• (For INDEF) to do the work is necessary. ====>
• (For) the work to be done is necessary.

So far so good. But this is an awkward sentence with a heavy clausal subject, and normally it would be extraposed, viz

• It is necessary for the work to be done.

However, the writer attempted instead to perform A-Raising, which is a governed rule (i.e, whether it can be applied or not depends on what the main predicate is), and necessary is a predicate that does not govern Raising. Other predicates do, but not necessary (or possible).

• The work turned out to be done.
• The work happened to be done.
• The work is likely to be done.

but

• *The work is possible to be done.
• *The work is necessary to be done.

As for the second sentence, think does govern B-Raising, so

• what he thinks (to be) proper

is fine, if one stops there. But the author added to be done after it, and (be) proper does not govern A-Raising. Hence it's not grammatical either.

Finally, there is no reason I can see why do the work has to be passivized in the first place; it adds nothing except syntactic complexity, and has tempted the author to indulge here in unsupportable syntactic flights of formality. If this was submitted in a paper in my class, I'd require it to be rewritten (NB: require governs Raising, too).