---
title: They said they could not positively inform me, but if I went to Sir… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They said they could not positively inform me, but if I went to Sir Gammer Vans he could tell me all about it. " Who acts: women, I, dead. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 4, sentence 76

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They said they could not positively inform me, but if I went to Sir Gammer Vans he could tell me all about it. "

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**Who acts:** women, I, dead · **What happens:** say, not inform, go, tell · **To what, where:** me, Sir Gammer Vans · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (women, I, dead), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg14241:18:76
# text = They said they could not positively inform me, but if I went to Sir Gammer Vans he could tell me all about it. "
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
6	positively	positively	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	inform	inform	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
8	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
11	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	Sir	Sir	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
16	Gammer	Gammer	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	Vans	Van	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
21	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	iobj	_	_
22	all	all	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
23	about	about	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
26	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | women *= woman* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **inform** *speech: other* | could | women *= woman* |  | me |  |  | positively *property* | vn tell-37.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Recipient |
| 3 | **go** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | I |  |  | Sir Gammer Vans |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to van=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | could | dead |  | me |  |  | about o'clock | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent i=Recipient about it=Topic |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 14241 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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