[lbo-talk] english question

Catherine Driscoll catherine.driscoll at arts.usyd.edu.au
Wed Sep 7 09:04:08 PDT 2005


My father would have freaked over the use of it's for "it has". It's been terrific weather lately - is that the kind of thing you mean? Knowing he would freak means knowing that somewhere at some time, probably in England in the 1950s, it was not considered correct. But, as he could sometimes be brought to recognise, the English language is a living changing thing.

I still think it's clumsy and I wouldn't do it, but there's no point hanging on to some conviction about the perfection of the English language, because when would you stop the process and say *this* is the point when it was right. I usually settle for correcting things that are not presently generally accepted and also correcting for what's appropriate to a particular audience.

Catherine

Quoting Thomas Seay <entheogens at yahoo.com>:


>
> Joanna,
>
> Isn't "it's = it has" used either in the present
> perfect, ie "he's been here since 10 PM" or, if it is
> used to indicate possession, it is used with got
> "she's got nice eyes". In both cases, I should think
> that context is enough. I mean, I don't recall
> someone saying, "she's nice eyes". Can you give an
> example where the context would cause ambiguity?
>
> And, of course, there is the matter of what is
> "correct" english: the descriptive vs. prescriptive
> debate.
>
> I dont have the background to answer you definitively
> on the above, but there's probably someone here who
> is.
>
> -Thomas
> --- joanna <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> > Is it really ok to use "it's" for "it has"?
> >
> > I keep seeing respectable people do it in print, in
> > the NYT, etc.
> >
> > But is it really correct? If it is, how do you
> > distinguish
> >
> > It's = it is
> >
> > from
> >
> > It's = it has
> >
> > Context won't always help you.
> >
> > Joanna
> >
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> >
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>
>
>
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>
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