Siouanists, eat your heart out.

[John Boyle]

>Is that there modal embedding an example of something more general? This here
>fellow would like to know.
>
>Jess Tauber
>zylogy at aol.com

Marianna Di Paolo did a nice article for American Speech (64.3 1989)
on double modals called "Double Modals as Single Lexical Items"  In
it she says that 'might could' is the most common form of double
modals (which is fine in my Utahan speech).  She doesn't treat this
type of double perfect marking, however.  When I heard this on NPR I
though it was great!

John Boyle