---
title: "Canst tell me what that is as has first no legs, and then two legs,… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "Canst tell me what that is as has first no legs, and then two legs, and ends with four legs?" Who acts: that. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 12, sentence 96

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"Canst tell me what that is as has first no legs, and then two legs, and ends with four legs?"

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**Who acts:** that · **What happens:** tell, be, have, end · **To what, where:** two legs, me, legs · **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 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (that), 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:pg14241:26:96
# text = "Canst tell me what that is as has first no legs, and then two legs, and ends with four legs?"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Canst	can	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	tell	tell	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	ccomp	_	_
6	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	nsubj	_	_
7	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
9	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
10	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	12	advmod	_	_
11	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	12	det	_	_
12	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	_
16	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nummod	_	_
17	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	ends	end	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	23	nummod	_	_
23	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | can |  | two legs | me |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Recipient |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | that |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** *in a quote* | present |  | no legs |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leg=Patient |
| 4 | **end** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  |  |  | with four legs | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality PP.subeventuality»: agent=Affector with leg=Subeventuality |

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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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