The new use of "of"

[Björn]

I´m curious as to when the use of the word "of" instead of "have" in contexts such as "should have", "would have" etc. started appearing. It seems to me it´s an American usage (though I´ve seen Brits using it here).

[emmline]

I could be wrong here, but I assume it's an incorrect expansion of the contractions "would've" and "should've."

"Would've" is, of course, a contraction of "would have," but spoken it sounds like "would of."

[Björn]

That was my thought exactly. I've only seen it on the net (on sites less sophisticated than this...) so what I'm wondering is has this been around for a long time, and does this crop up IRL?

[FJohnSharp]

It's not an accepted practice, but that doesn't stop people from doing it.

[Doug_Tipple]

This is irrelevant, but it came to mind anyway. When asked in public a difficult question about his personal life, President Bill Clinton replied, "It depends on what the definition of "is" is. I always thought that that was a hilarious response.

[SteveShaw]

Ann while Bob had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher.

This is grammatically-correct. Check it out here if you don't believe me!

[talasiga]

Inoffensive but serious post removed by me because it was not strictly on topic and breached my policy of only posting off topic material for the purpose of dramatic relief via light humorous diversion.

[emmline]

Ann while Bob had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher.

This is grammatically-correct. Check it out here if you don't believe me!

Yeeha! I got it right! But then again, my favorite limerick
goes like this:
Said a boy to his teacher one day:
"Wright has not written 'rite' right, I say!"
And the teacher replied, as the error she spied:
"Right! Wright! Write 'rite' right, right away!"

[djm]

Ah, the joys of punctuation! I got Emm's right away, but only because she had supplied the punctuation. I needed the explanation that Steve provided. I wouldn't have got that one without help.

djm

[SteveShaw]

Deleted so as to maintain integrity of thread. (Or should I say the thread, the integrity of... )

[Walden]

I´m curious as to when the use of the word "of" instead of "have" in contexts such as "should have", "would have" etc. started appearing. It seems to me it´s an American usage (though I´ve seen Brits using it here).

Sinclair Lewis used it in Elmer Gantry in the 1920's or something. I imagine you can find examples from the 19th Century, especially in authors who tried to convey dialect, such as Mark Twain or somebody. But yeah, it's a backward construct of "should've," et al.

[jim stone]

Yes, a colloquialism, that enables one to sound 'folksy'
in an American way.

Another:

What happened to the beans?

I ate 'em.

This is also grammatical, Steve and Em:

Dogs dogs dog dog dogs.

[Nanohedron]

I could be wrong here, but I assume it's an incorrect expansion of the contractions "would've" and "should've."

"Would've" is, of course, a contraction of "would have," but spoken it sounds like "would of."

Em, no need to pull punches. You know you're right. Utter philistines, that lot. Terrible, terrible. Someone should inform them. Em, I dispatch you to dispatch to them a dispatch with all the dispatch at your dispatch.

[izzarina]

Em, I dispatch you to dispatch to them a dispatch with all the dispatch at your dispatch.

I didn't even realize that there was a dispatch to dispatch!! Better get dispatching, em. The dispatch shouldn't be dispatched late, or else they may not dispatch at all.

[Caj]

Because of the cold weather, buffalo from Buffalo NY tend to be jerks and buffalo their fellow buffalo. This causes the other buffalo from Buffalo to be jerks too.

Hence you might observe that "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo."

Caj