Example sentences of "[modal v] speak of " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | The haiku poets aimed to condense many meanings into each phrase , so that the poem should speak of something that has both a particular and a general significance . |
| 2 | She had the impression that he had something on his mind and was uncertain whether or not he should speak of it . |
| 3 | Thus the term irony is used in something approaching its usual acceptance when Brooks associates it with Yeats 's appeal to the Greek sages in ‘ Sailing to That Yeats should speak of the ‘ artifice of eternity ’ evidently undermines in a sense the appearance of passion and sincerity with which he invokes the Greek sages , and thus can be said to bring about a kind of ironic reconciliation between his aspiration of a life free from Nature , and his rational awareness of his human limitations ( Brooks 1949 : 173 ) . |
| 4 | We are so encumbered by having British literature in our foreground that … one must speak of it in disproportion . |
| 5 | ‘ Well , ’ he hedged , ‘ as this is not an immediate matter we must speak of it again , ’ and turned away . |
| 6 | In this sense we may speak of a ‘ conflict or variance ’ between the rules of Law and the rules of Equity , in the language of section 25 ( sub-section 11 ) of the judicature Act 1873 ( now replaced by section 49 of the Supreme Court Act 1981 ) . |
| 7 | In exactly the same sense as we may speak of cuckoo genes having ( phenotypic ) effects on the colour and shape of cuckoo gapes , so we may speak of cuckoo genes having ( extended phenotypic ) effects on host behaviour . |
| 8 | In exactly the same sense as we may speak of cuckoo genes having ( phenotypic ) effects on the colour and shape of cuckoo gapes , so we may speak of cuckoo genes having ( extended phenotypic ) effects on host behaviour . |
| 9 | For example , it may speak of ‘ Terminal Condition ’ , but what is ‘ Terminal ’ ; six days , six months or even years ? |
| 10 | Nonetheless there is a tendency within the academic establishment to regard the exposition of the black-letter law and the exhaustive analyses of concepts as the totality of the concerns of the academic criminal lawyer ; indeed one may speak of an attempt , conscious or otherwise , to distort the data to fit the expositor 's ideal . |
| 11 | By 1279 one may speak of monastic foundations in England — nearly a thousand of them — as having reached saturation point . |
| 12 | Where a strong subject-employment relationship does exist and influences course planning , we may speak of a ‘ professional ’ course . |
| 13 | This sense of heavy requires fairly narrowly defined contextual conditions : one may speak of a heavy smoker , or a heavy drug-user , a car may be heavy on petrol , etc . |
| 14 | We may speak of ( a ) a topless dress or ( b ) a topless dancer . |
| 15 | Where there are definite intuitions about which elements belong at a given level , we may speak of substantive levels . |
| 16 | ‘ And your father — if I may speak of him too — was a man all of us admired … ’ |
| 17 | In other words Psalm 104:30 may speak of the energising rather than the creative work of the Spirit , and thus fall into line with the rest of the Old Testament teaching on ruach as ‘ breath ’ . |
| 18 | Equally , we would seldom be likely to use the word acrobatic of acrobats themselves or their doings except , precisely , on occasions when they are exercising their special skills — the rest of the time we may speak of them , if a description is needed at all , as large , or rich , or charming , as standing on his dignity , or asking for black coffee , or younger than Aunt Mary , and so on . |
| 19 | Indeed we may speak of a ‘ new culture ’ created by modern communications , which affects everyone , particularly the younger generation , and is itself largely the result of technological advances which have created ‘ new ways of communicating , with new languages , new techniques and a new psychology ’ ( cf. |
| 20 | Listen to him talk , as he will at any opportunity , and he 'll speak of ‘ independence and freedom ’ , not just ‘ independence ’ . |
| 21 | As we might speak of the culture of the Hebrides , or as W. H. Rivers wrote of the culture of Melanesia , so we speak of the culture of the European West to describe a set of outlooks , aims and ways of life , which has a history in the past of Europe and has spread to other parts of the world . |
| 22 | And all the undertakings we might speak of reduce themselves to a single one , that of making history . |
| 23 | ‘ Over the years ’ — Haverford did his best to sound modest — ‘ you might speak of me as one who has loved not wisely but too well . ’ |
| 24 | He spoke as a connoisseur might speak of a cheese or a wine . |
| 25 | Proceeding by trial and error ; thus one might speak of a heuristic approach to teaching grammar . |
| 26 | I suppose if a court denied me access to them , I might speak of them as ex-children . |
| 27 | Within a few years of this last attempt by an emperor to rally the Roman empire to paganism , a Greek bishop could speak of Julian 's pagan revival as a misguided attempt to introduce ‘ novelties ’ in place of the traditional religion ; but at much the same time in the West , Christians were still regarded as outside the mainstream of respectable upper-class culture , as the foolish minority who rejected the wise and hallowed traditions of their forefathers which had made Rome great . |
| 28 | So , a small boy could speak of ‘ our goats ’ or ‘ our Mercedes truck ’ , even on occasion , and with startling initial effect , ‘ my Mercedes truck ’ : vis-à-vis outsiders , a household was an undifferentiated unit . |
| 29 | When the subject of his father cropped up , which was not very often , Phil found that she could speak of him with true affection , keeping alive for the little boy his early memories of a loving father . |
| 30 | Any plan for the future depended on the term of the girl 's life now ending , and neither could speak of that . |