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From: ran@ho95b.UUCP (RANeinast)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: I've got it
Message-ID: <310@ho95b.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 18-Feb-85 11:49:28 EST
Article-I.D.: ho95b.310
Posted: Mon Feb 18 11:49:28 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 20-Feb-85 03:18:01 EST
Organization: AT&T-Bell Labs, Holmdel, NJ
Lines: 23

Something that's suddenly bugging me is the construction "I've got",
as in "I've got to go to the store", sometimes also "I have got to
go to the store."

What does the "got" do?
"I have to go to the store" says the same thing.

I should mention that the construction seems to be standard English.
I do it, and everybody I know does it, but, as I think about it,
it still strikes me as pretty silly and useless.

My guess on its origin is that people starting to say "I have"
automatically contracted to "I've", and then the sentence didn't
feel like it had a verb, so they put in the got (but why got?).

Anybody out there have any words of wisdom (or otherwise) on this?


-- 

". . . and shun the frumious Bandersnatch."
Robert Neinast (ihnp4!ho95c!ran)
AT&T-Bell Labs