Ancestors

Toot

Written by St John on 2024-09-09 at 14:20

Saying "have got" is perfectly good grammar and its use to mean "have" is completely standard. Technically, though, "got" is the past tense of "get", so when you ask someone "Can't you see it? Haven't you got eyes?" you're really asking, "Haven't you obtained eyes?" Which I guess you did at some point in your foetal development, but still.

[#]English #Grammar

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Descendants

Written by Peter Binkley on 2024-09-09 at 14:40

@dazzlepansy fwiw Google Ngrams tells an interesting story of the transition from "haven't you eyes" to "haven't you got eyes" - "got" came in around 1900, no-got started declining in the 1920s, but they've both been rising a little since 2000 (usual caveats about Ngrams apply)

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Haven%27t+you+eyes%2C+haven%27t+you+got+eyes&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3

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Written by St John on 2024-09-09 at 16:48

@pbinkley Thank you, this is great! I always love seeing some numbers. I figured "have got" was more recent because we've all seen those period dramas where people go around saying, "Have you the time, Lord Elderberry?"

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Written by Peter Binkley on 2024-09-09 at 19:03

@dazzlepansy I was surprised that that the no-got form has held on for so long, at least in Google's corpus. I never hear it in conversation. Are period dramas plus new editions of out-of-copyright novels enough to keep it current in the data forever?

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Written by St John on 2024-09-10 at 08:34

@pbinkley You might be right, that would explain some of the numbers at least.

The other one I have a soft spot for is where someone says, "I'd better go." And I respond archly, "Yes, I think you better had!" Is it too late to bring that one back? We can make it happen.

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Written by Peter Binkley on 2024-09-10 at 15:55

@dazzlepansy I've never thought about that one, but I hear it in my mother's voice...

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