"might have done"

[Mai Kuha]

On Tue, 21 Nov 2000 RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:

> I published an article or two on this British neologism a number of years
> ago. It seems to have come into popularity in "cultivated" circles in
> southern England between the two world wars. Before that, it was decidely
> declasse--rural and working-class in the 19th century. An interesting bit of

Interesting. This really adds to my appreciation of the episode of the
britcom "Are You Being Served" in which Mr. Lucas tells the story of how
he got caught in a young woman's apartment and tried to pass for a TV
repairman (i.e. a legitimate visitor) by picking up the TV and starting to
leave the apartment with it. "Did you get away with it?" Mr. Humphries
asks, intrigued. "I might have done, if I'd had me pants on," Lucas
explains. Maybe "might have done" here is intended as humorous
hypercorrection.

-Mai
_____________________________________________
Mai Kuha                  mkuha at bsuvc.bsu.edu
Department of English     (765) 285-8410
Ball State University