---
title: "No, they could not make themselves understood," said the Seer, "but… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "No, they could not make themselves understood," said the Seer, "but Jack could do the errand." Who acts: man, Seer, Jack. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 6, sentence 67

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"No, they could not make themselves understood," said the Seer, "but Jack could do the errand."

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**Who acts:** man, Seer, Jack · **What happens:** not make, not understand, say, do · **To what, where:** man, errand · **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 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, Seer, Jack), 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:pg14241:20:67
# text = "No, they could not make themselves understood," said the Seer, "but Jack could do the errand."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
8	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	7	obj	_	_
9	understood	understand	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	Seer	seer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
16	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	Jack	Jack	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	errand	errand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **make** *in a quote* | could | man | man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **understand** *in a quote* | participle | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Seer |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **do** *in a quote* | could | Jack | the errand |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent errand=Eventuality |

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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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