>At around 1/12/05 1:14 pm, Doug Henwood wrote:
>>
>> After Packer's talk, I politely asked him if he regretted his support
>> for the war. He did. "I wish I would have had more information at the
>> time," he told me.
>>
>
>"Would have had" -- what's that called in grammar: past continuous?
>Shouldn't that be "I wish I had had more information" or simply "I wish
>I had more information at that time", or if you must "I wish I could
>have had more information"?
>
>If I am right about this, why do Americans, in particular make such
>mistakes? I mean, this guy is a journalist... shouldn't he know the
>language a bit better?
In this case, it might have something to do with embarrassment and dissimulation.
>Another peeve of mine, if I haven't already ranted about it is "bring
>vs. take": Americans say "Could you bring this to Mrs. Smith?", when
>they really mean "Could you take this to Mrs. Smith?". Why?
>
>Why do these things drive me up the wall?
Could it have something to do with the postcolonial mind? I think it was Rahul Mahajan who, many years ago on the old Spoons Marxism list, pointed out that Indian journalists love Brit pundit words like "rebarbative" (and isn't "pundit" of Indian origin?).
Doug