should of/should have

On 14 Sep 2001, at 0:01, Michael Poxon wrote:

> Dear BPJ
>
> Something I've noticed very much recently, certainly in British English; not
> just sound change, but syntactic change too. The ending /schwa+v/ found in
> "could've", "should've" etc., is being interpreted as "of" instead of a
> contraction of "have", and the emphatic response articulated as "You should
> of!" instead of "You should have" and so on. My kids (13 and 16) consider
> this perfect grammatical.
I had a right telling off from my history teacher when I was eleven
for writing in an essay "should of". I didn't know the difference at
the time, and thought this was perfectly fine.
-
Not so much out of my tree, as driving away from the orchard at high speed.
-
Damon M. Lord
Languages Student
LordDM@cf.ac.uk
dirtybiblestories@priest.co.uk