Hucky
Member
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2011
- Member Type
- English Teacher
- Native Language
- German
- Home Country
- Switzerland
- Current Location
- Switzerland
Hi,
This is a query to the British native speakers (that´s why it is a query!). Well, it is all about this: An English coursebook - to name just one example - edited by Longman in cooperation with the BBC in 1977 (not too long ago!) introduces the usage of the main verb to have in its possessive meaning as follows:
positive: I have a brother.
negative: I haven´t a brother.
question: Have you a brother?
Here the negative and the question are formed without both to do and got. I encountered this usage even in a TV course no more than some 10 years ago. I could easily cite a lot of literature (usage dictionaries) on the subject from the 1960s in favour of the same structure. What I`d like to know is the present state of affairs. In other terms, are these forms of asking questions and making negative statements still common on the British Isles (I reckon they are as I witnessed them from time to time), or rather to what extent and in what register (colloquial/formal), among what kind of speakers. What is this usage regarded in stylistic terms (lowbrow)?
Thanks in advance and greetings from the Continent!
Hucky
This is a query to the British native speakers (that´s why it is a query!). Well, it is all about this: An English coursebook - to name just one example - edited by Longman in cooperation with the BBC in 1977 (not too long ago!) introduces the usage of the main verb to have in its possessive meaning as follows:
positive: I have a brother.
negative: I haven´t a brother.
question: Have you a brother?
Here the negative and the question are formed without both to do and got. I encountered this usage even in a TV course no more than some 10 years ago. I could easily cite a lot of literature (usage dictionaries) on the subject from the 1960s in favour of the same structure. What I`d like to know is the present state of affairs. In other terms, are these forms of asking questions and making negative statements still common on the British Isles (I reckon they are as I witnessed them from time to time), or rather to what extent and in what register (colloquial/formal), among what kind of speakers. What is this usage regarded in stylistic terms (lowbrow)?
Thanks in advance and greetings from the Continent!
Hucky