Does English support three-word contractions?
In English certain pairs words can be contracted with an apostrophe, such as "I've" (I have). I don't know if there are strong rules for which words can be combined in this way and which can't. In all the examples I can think of, each contributing word is only one syllable.
Does any version of English formally recognize combining three words like this as being normative, as opposed to considering it incorrect or slang (as one might find on Twitter or Usenet)? I imagine it'd depend on which words, just as combining two words seems to. I just found myself writing "I'd've" (I would have), and I wouldn't've thought much of it, but a non-native speaker asked me about this construction and I don't know whether it's personal quirk, a marker of a certain type of population, or normative.
3 answers
Arnold Zwicky and Geoff Pullum's paper "Cliticization vs. inflection: English n't", published in the September 1983 issue of Language (volume 59, number 3), indicates that I'd've exists. While I'm not completely sure what sort of normativity you seek, I think this might satisfy you.
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- it is not -> 'tisn't
1739 D. Bellamy Innocence Betray'd ii. iii. 112 'Tisn't a Virtue, Lucia, but a Vice, To be so very coy! so very nice.
https://www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/126732
slightly archaic, but 'taren't we all?
and begging the question
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it ^ not -> it ain't -> 'tain't. (first known use 1773)
^ = am|are|is|has|have
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/%27tain%27t#h1
Version as collected by Howard Odum (publ. 1911 in Journal of American Folklore)
Baby, you ought-a tole me,
Six months before you roll me,
I'd had some other place to go,
'Tain't nobody's bizness but my own
http://www.keeponliving.at/song/ain't_nobody's_business_if_i_do.html
Working on the principle that language is defined by the users and not a 'Formal Committee on Language', I submit the use of double contractions by Lewis Carroll is close enough to formal recognition to pass muster.
He was especially fond of: sha'n't (which is only two words, but contracted twice), but also used "I'd've", and "wouldn't've" "couldn't've" etc.
Some other site had a look at this with a question on: ‘Twas good until ‘twasn’t, and a specific question on Mr Carroll's usage: Is Lewis Carroll correct in his suggestion on some abbreviations?
Anyone who argues that words can have only one apostrophe should take a close look at the abbreviation for forecastle: fo'c'sle or fo'c's'le according to Wikipedia
However, I wouldn't call it normative.
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