tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33159158.post1066263426750957128..comments2024-02-25T20:07:56.114-06:00Comments on Mr. Verb: "Might be going to V"Mr. Verbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048931596146402872noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33159158.post-77079778591495632552007-07-20T06:49:00.000-05:002007-07-20T06:49:00.000-05:00Excellent, thanks. Of course, just for the reasons...Excellent, thanks. Of course, just for the reasons you give, it's a great band name.Mr. Verbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04048931596146402872noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33159158.post-64263174338900525862007-07-19T20:14:00.000-05:002007-07-19T20:14:00.000-05:00Hi. I'm Tim, from the band Might Could. Thanks f...Hi. I'm Tim, from the band Might Could. Thanks for referring to us.<BR/><BR/>Our band name definitely is Southern in origin. My bandmate is from South Carolina, and he introduced the double modal to the rest of us. It's hard to come up with a band name in this day and age, so we decided to give that one a whirl.<BR/><BR/>It's certainly a name that not everybody gets. Most non-Southerners we meet have no idea why we'd use a phrase that doesn't make sense to them as a band name.Timhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09377802405321142879noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33159158.post-54350403473561109252007-07-13T06:25:00.000-05:002007-07-13T06:25:00.000-05:00Well, for some odd reason, the speaker you describ...Well, for some odd reason, the speaker you describe fits my own speech. I won't even speculate about the syntactic analysis of this stuffAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33159158.post-24931432632991022412007-07-13T04:44:00.000-05:002007-07-13T04:44:00.000-05:00I too can say "might be gonna" as well as "might b...I too can say "might be gonna" as well as "might be going to" (the latter always has 'to' as a preposition, not an infinitive marker). "Gonna" isn't a modal for me, I suspect, but at best a semi-modal. <BR/><BR/>However, I should point out that I am from Tennessee and double modals are no problem for me, though I don't have free combination of them, of course ("might could", sure; "could might", okay; "might must" absolutely not, though "might hafta" is okay). But I don't think I'd say "might will" ... "maybe will".The Ridger, FCDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01538111197270563075noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33159158.post-25669178496684389202007-07-12T22:38:00.000-05:002007-07-12T22:38:00.000-05:00I too have no problem with it might be going to ra...I too have no problem with <I>it might be going to rain</I> and I similarly have no problem with <I>it might be gonna rain</I>. All other double modals however, are strictly disallowed in my dialect. Any combination of modals, such as <I>might could</I>, <I>may didn't</I> or <I>used to could</I>, is completely ungrammatical for me. I'd only be able to use the main-verb equivalents with these, so <I>might be able to</I>, <I>may not have</I> and <I>used to be able to</I>.<BR/><BR/>The difference with <I>might be gonna</I> is that it can be parsed (at least by me) as a modal + main verb construction. Syntactically, <I>gonna</I> (or more accurately (<I>to be gonna</I>) is a main (phrasal) verb in my dialect; it's ungrammatical if the <I>be</I> isn't correctly inflected for all the normal inflectional requirements.<BR/><BR/>So, I think Skullturf Q. Beavispants (excellent name, by the way) is on the right track when he points out that <I>be going to</I> is able to be the last verb in the sentence, which I understand to mean 'main verb'.<BR/><BR/>Except I can replace <I>be going to</I> with <I>be gonna</I> wherever I like.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33159158.post-7388167725642408012007-07-12T21:15:00.000-05:002007-07-12T21:15:00.000-05:00For what it's worth, I am from Western Canada, and...For what it's worth, I am from Western Canada, and thus don't say "might could" or "used to could". Interestingly, though, I see nothing remarkable about "It might be going to rain", but I would never condense that to "It might be gonna rain", although I have no problem with contracting "going to" to "gonna" elsewhere in casual speech.<BR/><BR/>Perhaps part of the reason is that "going" leads a double life: it can appear as part of the modal "going to" in front of another verb, but it can also be the last verb of the sentence, as in "I might be going to the store."Skullturf Q. Beavispantshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17139201454470391989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33159158.post-41928647258311133912007-07-12T17:12:00.000-05:002007-07-12T17:12:00.000-05:00I'm a (former) Southerner, and also a native user ...I'm a (former) Southerner, and also a native user of "those creatures". I think you're probably right about reason for the speaker not losing that particular construction despite having lost all the others. I've also (mostly, except when I get excited and start talking too fast) filtered out most of the really obvious double modals like "might could" after getting really baffled/scathing looks from people after we moved from the South up to MN when I was a kid, but I know for a fact that I say "might be gonna X" all the time, as well as "might ought to X". I really <I>ought</I> to have the right generalization about the set I should be avoiding, being trained as a linguist and all, but somehow neither of those got caught up with the rest of the double modals.<BR/><BR/>(also, hello! I've been lurking for awhile here but this is my first time commenting.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com