LINGUIST List 17.1819

Sat Jun 17 2006

Qs: (British?) English 'Should Of' Construction

Editor for this issue: Jessica Boynton <jessicalinguistlist.org>

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Directory         1.    Mark Jones, (British?) English 'Should Of' Construction

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Message 1: (British?) English 'Should Of' Construction
Date: 16-Jun-2006
From: Mark Jones <markjjoneshotmail.com>
Subject: (British?) English 'Should Of' Construction


Dear Linguists,

I'm familiar with the observation that English speakers often expandcontractions like ''should've'' as ''should of'' in writing, but recentlyI've heard two interviews with British English speaking footballers ofdifferent ages and from different dialect areas (Alan Shearer, 35, fromNewcastle, and Wayne Rooney, 20, from Liverpool) use these expanded formsin stressed forms in speech in unscripted interviews.

In a BBC World Cup slot on Wednesday 15th June, Alan Shearer said somethingalong the lines of ''He didn't score, but he SHOULD OF''. The vowel qualitywas unmistakable, and Geordie English typically realises /h/, thoughadmittedly perhaps not always in function words. Still, this example wasstressed.

These two observations have made me wonder whether this expanded form hasbeen previously reported in speech. Is it just footballers?

I will post a summary of any responses. Many thanks.

Mark

Mark J. JonesDepartment of LinguisticsUniversity of Cambridgehttp://kiri.ling.cam.ac.uk/mark/mjj13cam.ac.uk

Linguistic Field(s): Sociolinguistics
Subject Language(s): English (eng)