Shannon
asked:
I'm just 35% into this book (Kindle pub) and there have already been two instances where a speaker says "should of" instead of the correct "should have." I was bothered by the first instance but let it slide because I thought perhaps Griffith meant to write it that way given the character who speaks it. But now it's happened a second time by a different speaker and I'm irritated. Anyone else notice this?
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George
No, I'm afraid I didn't notice. But if I had noticed that, or the "should a" that Lore (the other answerer here) complains of, it wouldn't have bothered me. Rather, I would have applauded Griffiths's choice.
My master's is in linguistics, my B.A. in English literature, and I've a certificate in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). Those perspectives support me in being absolutely fine with writers who represent the spoken dialects of their characters rather than edited written English. And that's no matter whether they're marginalized speech--like "Black" English or Irish English in, say, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles's Inspector Slider novels--or the less distinctive dialect spoken in these characters' "idyllic seaside town" (to quote the blurb).
Particularly when I'd bet money that in casual speech both of you ladies pronounce "should've" sometimes indistinguishably from "should of" and other times from "shoulda" (which last is generally spelled solid, in my experience). I certainly do! Because that's normal educated English (as well as uneducated), whether American, British, or I assume Jamaican, Nigerian, Indian, etc. Moreover, it's how English learners should learn to pronounce the form in order to approximate native-speaker usage.
So it's no more awful than pronouncing "comfortable" as a trisyllable, as recorded in any dictionary you care to consult, rather than something approximating the spelling (which I defy you to find in well-ordered spoken English).
My master's is in linguistics, my B.A. in English literature, and I've a certificate in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). Those perspectives support me in being absolutely fine with writers who represent the spoken dialects of their characters rather than edited written English. And that's no matter whether they're marginalized speech--like "Black" English or Irish English in, say, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles's Inspector Slider novels--or the less distinctive dialect spoken in these characters' "idyllic seaside town" (to quote the blurb).
Particularly when I'd bet money that in casual speech both of you ladies pronounce "should've" sometimes indistinguishably from "should of" and other times from "shoulda" (which last is generally spelled solid, in my experience). I certainly do! Because that's normal educated English (as well as uneducated), whether American, British, or I assume Jamaican, Nigerian, Indian, etc. Moreover, it's how English learners should learn to pronounce the form in order to approximate native-speaker usage.
So it's no more awful than pronouncing "comfortable" as a trisyllable, as recorded in any dictionary you care to consult, rather than something approximating the spelling (which I defy you to find in well-ordered spoken English).
Lore
Yes, but what is worse is when they say: “should a” sigh. Shoulda, woulda, coulda. Awful.
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