The Minor Parts of SpeechExercise
The following text is from the mystery novel Farriers’ Lane, by Anne
Perry (1993: 285). It occurs after the discovery of a policeman’s (Pa-
terson) body hanging in his bedroom. (a) Identify all the modal verbs
in the passage. (b) Discuss each one using the framework for under-
standing modals presented just above. Remember that each modal
may serve more than one purpose. (c) You should also note that the
modals occur in the later part of each paragraph. Why do you think
the author shifted to the use of modals as she did? (d) The novel con-
tains many passages with lots of modal verbs in them. Why do you
think that modals might suit a mystery writer’s purposes?
He touched Paterson’s hand. The body swung very slightly. The
flesh was cold, the arm rigid. He had been dead several hours. He was
dressed in plain dark uniform trousers and tunic, which was torn, his
sergeant’s insignia ripped off. He still wore his boots. It was nearly
midday now. Presumably it was what he had worn when he came
home from the last duty of the day before. If he had slept here, risen
in the morning and dressed ready to go out, the body would still have
some warmth left, and be limp. He must have died sometime late
yesterday evening, or during the night. It would almost certainly be
the evening. Why should he be wearing his street clothes all night?
The hook was in the middle of the ceiling, about ten or eleven
feet high, where one would expect to find a chandelier. There was no
furniture near enough to it for him to have climbed on. It had taken a
strong man to lift Paterson up and then let him fall from that height.
He must have used the rope as a pulley over the hook. There was no
conceivable way Paterson could have done it himself, even supposing
he had some cause to, or believed he had.Negation
Negating a clause is primarily done by inserting the negative particle not. If
the clause has one or more auxiliary verbs, not is typically placed after the
first auxiliary, though it can occur elsewhere: He must not have arrived yet.
If the clause does not have an auxiliary, then the “dummy” auxiliary do is
inserted into the first auxiliary position and not is placed after it: He did not
arrive on time. Cf. *He not arrived on time.