better had ~ had better: semantics

[sagehen]

>Wilson Gray and dInIs commented yesterday on 'better had', as in
>
>"Yo better had listen" = "It would be very advisable for you to listen"
>
>It sounds as if this might have the same motivation (pardon me for using
>such a
>vague term) as the standard British
>
>"You had better [listen, etc]" or "You'd better [listen, etc]"
>
>As in "better had", the "had" has no effect on the tense of the main verb,
>though I hadn't noticed that about my own dialect until Wilson pointed it out
>about his.
>
>Damien Hall
>University of Pennsylvania
~~~~~~~~
I've a notion that "had better" is perhaps a sort of back-formation  from "
would better"  passing through " 'd better".  "Would" conforms to the real
meaning of  the expression than "had" does.  And both are contracted that
way.
This explanation is not as clear as it might be, but perhaps you take my
meaning.
A. Murie


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