American English (was Re: [lbo-talk] five pundits in the dock)

[Guest]

>>  > "Would have had" -- what's that called in
grammar: past 
continuous?
>>
>> I think it's something like a past imperfect. 
Between "had had," 
"could
>> have had," and "would have had" I hear distinct
shades of meaning 
aroud
>> the difference between "can" and "will."  

A simpler explanation might be that it's a mangled
past perfect subjunctive.

The subjunctive forms look too much like an ordinary
past tense

"your momma's so stupid that when the doctor told her
to take a urine she wished she HAD studied harder"

so they are slowly being replaced by a simplified
syntax where WOULD forms every subjunctive

"your momma's so stupid that when the doctor told her
to take a urine she wished she WOULD HAVE studied
harder"

or

I heard this for the first time in a freshman lit
class.  Despite my descriptionist sympathies I very
nearly had a stroke.

	

		
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