Date: Sun, 19 Jun 1994 22:55:00 EDT

From: "James_C.Stalker" STALKER[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MSU.EDU

Subject: Re: Double modals up north.



Trudgill & Chambers (1991) Dialects of English: Studies in Grammatical

Variation. Longman has a nice article by Keith Brown, Double Modals in

Harwick Scots on the topic under discussion. It seems to be more widespread

than might have been assumed. A limited range of double modals was quite

common in the Louisville, KY area some 20-25 years ago, although I cannot

attest that it is still viable there. Certainly, "might could" and "should

ought" were among them. I specify "limited" because the range is not as broad

as Brown suggests for Harwick Scots.