could tom cravens hit nail head could expand emphasis second element could pronunc iation rather wonder model relevant looks like preposition cf verblike used infinitive e g negated preceding never etc important never tell lies two forms weak strong also interesting never get tensed verbs others pointed used modals true course sorry notice incidentally could cant preposition latter complement whereas one could e past participle elided could dick hudson dept phonetics linguistics university college london gower street london wc1e 6bt uclyrah ucl ac uk