---
title: "Nay, that cannot be," quoth the shepherd; "I know not to write nor… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "Nay, that cannot be," quoth the shepherd; "I know not to write nor to read." Who acts: you, pardon. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/28/67/)

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 14, sentence 67

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"Nay, that cannot be," quoth the shepherd; "I know not to write nor to read."

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**Who acts:** you, pardon · **What happens:** be, know, not write, read · **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 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, pardon), 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:pg14241:28:67
# text = "Nay, that cannot be," quoth the shepherd; "I know not to write nor to read."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Nay	nay	INTJ	UH	_	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	nsubj	_	_
5	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	_
10	quoth	quoth	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	shepherd	shepherd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	write	write	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	ccomp	_	_
20	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	22	cc	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	read	read	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | quoth *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **know** *in a quote* | present | your pardon *= pardon* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **not** **write** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **read** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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