ADS-L Digest - 2 Jan 2006 to 3 Jan 2006 (#2006-4)

[Amy West]

Non-standard 'cause it annoys the snot out of me and I would correct
it in any kind of public, work, or academic writing. I would correct
it as a copy editor unless it needed to be there for some reason
(such as conveying dialect). And I'm not a usage purist, really I'm
not.

But what the heck do I know, Joanne? This was my first time teaching
freshman comp. And I think you were actually asking Dennis and
Jonathan.

And here's the exact usage note  from MW's C11, Dennis:

  used in place of the contraction 've often in representations of
uneducated speech

So,  I think my transmission of their info was erroneous.

---Amy West

(PS Joanne, I like the name change to Websteer. ;-) )

>Date:    Tue, 3 Jan 2006 17:27:34 -0500
>From:    "Joanne M. Despres" <jdespres at MERRIAM-WEBSTER.COM>
>Subject: Re: "of" for "have" in "would have" constructions
>
>Would you call these student uses standard or nonstandard?   The
>M-W Collegiate entry labels the word as nonstandard, which
>basically means that it wouldn't appear without some kind of
>stigma in professionally-edited prose.  That is not meant to imply
>that it couldn't appear in nonstandard writing unselfconsciously,
>though.
>
>Joanne Despres
>Merriam-Websteer