Date:  Tue, 17 Oct 1995 08:31:31 -0400

From:  "Bethany Dumas, UTK" <DUMASB[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UTKVX.UTK.EDU>

Subject: Double/Multiple Modals



The constructions like "might could" are called double modals or multiple

modals. There are several good article or parts of articles, all of which are

cited in my not quite published article. There can also be three of them

if one allows in quasi-modals. Ex: might should oughta.



The best comment I have ever heard about them cam from Bill Labov in

an Institute talk one year. He discussed the form (and every grammar book I

have ever examined says categorially, "modals cannnot be combined in

English"), then exaplained their distribution in SOuthern English and

concluded, "Standard English may be considerd a subset of Southern

English. Southern English allows a wider range of variations then

Standard English."



I am trying to get bothe my double modal paper and my a-prefixing paper

finished and to journals RIGHT NOW.



Bethany

dumasb[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]utk.edu