interesting linguistic divergence in English
I've noticed an "error" that some local people make when writing messages: a few people have been writing "would of" instead of "would've"
At first, my Editor brain wanted to correct them, but then my linguistics brain took over – this is really interesting!
"would have" has a derivable meaning – each word stands alone, and you can easily figure it out:
"I have done it"
"I would have done it"
(cont)
interesting linguistic divergence in English
"would of", on the other hand, is a compound – you cannot divide it into individual words, because you can't say "I of done it"
but you* CAN say "I would of done it"
so we have this divergence where a formerly derivable phrase is becoming a compound!
*"you" means "a speaker who considers this grammatically valid"
interesting linguistic divergence in English
@lizardsquid I've heard people say that gonna is a legitimate word because it's used only in a particular context (to express the future tense). You wouldn't say "I'm gonna the store" instead of "I'm going to the store", for instance. Of course you could say "I'm gonna go to the store."
I'm all for this, personally.
interesting linguistic divergence in English
@intherain in linguistics, the criteria for "legitimate word" is just "do a certain number of people use it"
Linguists describe how the grammar rules work, rather than prescribe how they should work.
