Re: Lee: I should think so (AmE)

On Wed, 13 Oct 2010 03:05:32 -0700 (PDT), Marius Hancu
<marius.hancu@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hello:

Uncle Jack is well-educated, a doctor.
Does his using
"should" instead of the current "would" in the first person
imply the old-fashioned/genteel/Southern usage in AmE?

----
Rose Aylmer was Uncle Jack?s cat. [...]

?She?s gettin? fat,? I said.

?I should think so. She eats all the leftover fingers and ears from
the hospital.?

Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

Interesting. I can't speak for AmE, and I've already admitted quite
recently that I don't share a distinction between subtleties of usage
of "would" and "should" that some people have - but this is a case
where the two have different meanings to me.

"I would think so" means "I expect that that is the case".

"I should think so" (often as an exclamation) means "That's hardly
surprising", or "Of course that's true".

In this case, I believe that Lee is using "should" in the manner
familiar to me - "Of course she's gettin' fat. She eats all the
leftover fingers and ears from the hospital".

Cheers - Ian
(BrE: Yorks., Hants.)
.

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