have, of, and a

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 08:53 PM 10/14/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>"Have" and "of" merge phonetically in constructions like "I would [@] gone"
>and "two [@] those", leading to the common writing slip "I would of gone".
>I found a variant of this phenomenon while reading Tom Clancy's _Red Rabbit_
>on Fall Break.  (It occupied a cold, rainy day on Georgian Bay last week.)
>On page 349, Clancy writes
>
>"That would be a major complication, but not so vast of one as to be
>impossible to arrange."
>
>This is the first time I've seen "a" replaced by "of".  Usually it goes in
>the other direction.
>
>By the way, the book isn't worth the bother.  Clancy's slipped a bit from
>his _Red October_ days.
>Herb

A third, and very common, variant is "of a," as in "not so vast of a
one."  I don't like this and always cross out the 'of' when I see it in
writing (I accept it in speaking, though I still don't like it).  Looks
like Clancy is hypercorrecting, perhaps from both the spoken contraction
and the growing use of "of a."