---
title: "Well, to tell the truth, before I left London my father was sick, a… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "Well, to tell the truth, before I left London my father was sick, and said I was to come here to look for the golden apples, for they were the only things that would do him good; and when I came to your youngest brother, he told me many things I had to do before I came here. Who acts: I, father, sw
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/27/8/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [More English Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/) / [More English Fairy Tales, part 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/27/) / 8

# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 13, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Well, to tell the truth, before I left London my father was sick, and said I was to come here to look for the golden apples, for they were the only things that would do him good; and when I came to your youngest brother, he told me many things I had to do before I came here.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, father, swans, only things, London · **What happens:** tell, leave, be, say, come, look · **To what, where:** truth, London, many things, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, father, swans, only things), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg14241:27:8
# text = "Well, to tell the truth, before I left London my father was sick, and said I was to come here to look for the golden apples, for they were the only things that would do him good; and when I came to your youngest brother, he told me many things I had to do before I came here.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	tell	tell	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
12	London	London	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
13	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
16	sick	sick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
20	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	ccomp	_	_
24	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	23	advmod	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
27	for	for	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	apples	apple	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
32	for	for	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
33	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
34	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	cop	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
36	only	only	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	_
38	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	40	nsubj	_	_
39	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	40	aux	_	_
40	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	37	acl:relcl	_	_
41	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	obj	_	_
42	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	54	punct	_	_
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	54	cc	_	_
45	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	47	advmod	_	_
46	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	47	nsubj	_	_
47	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	54	advcl	_	_
48	to	to	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
49	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	51	nmod:poss	_	_
50	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	51	amod	_	_
51	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
53	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	54	nsubj	_	_
54	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
55	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	54	iobj	_	_
56	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	57	amod	_	_
57	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	54	obj	_	_
58	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	59	nsubj	_	_
59	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	54	ccomp	_	_
60	to	to	PART	TO	_	61	mark	_	_
61	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	59	xcomp	_	_
62	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	64	mark	_	_
63	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	64	nsubj	_	_
64	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	61	advcl	_	_
65	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	64	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
66	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  | the truth |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent truth=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **leave** *in a quote* | past | I | London |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent london=Theme |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | past | my father |  |  |  |  | sick *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **come** *in a quote* | past | I |  |  | here |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **look** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for the golden apples | vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent for apple=Theme |
| 7 | **is** *in a quote* | past | swans *= swan* |  |  |  |  | for the only things | tree rules |
| 8 | **do** *in a quote* | would | the only things | London |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 9 | **come** *in a quote* | past | I |  |  |  |  | to your youngest brother | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to brother=Initial\_Location |
| 10 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | London | many things | me |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 11 | **have** *in a quote* | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 12 | **do** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 13 | **come** *in a quote* | past | I |  |  | here |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/27/7/)
- next →: [sentence 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/27/9/)
- ↑ back to [More English Fairy Tales, part 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/27/)