Allison,

You sound like a native Southerner.  I first heard "might could" from the realtor we were working with in Atlanta in 1974 to find a house.  I was astonished to hear what I had only read about in my linguistics training.  It's called a double modal.  One also hears "might should" and "might should oughta".  I've never heard any of these forms negated, with a not after the first modal.  The double modal construction is found in Middle English as well, so it's not particularly new.  It's just isolated to a few varieties of spoken English.

Herb

-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of Allison Rose
Sent: Wed 7/5/2006 7:29 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: "useta could"
 
I might could help you if I knew anything about linguistics, which I
unfortunately don't.

I've used "might could" my whole life and never thought twice about it until
I took a college-level grammar course. "Whole nother" is also a regular
staple of my vocabulary diet; so is "y'all," which I continue to use despite
the weird looks I get from people sometimes.

Figured I'd contribute.

- Allison

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