---
title: "There is only one fault that I find with your story," he often said… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: "There is only one fault that I find with your story," he often said: "it is too short." Who acts: matter, fault. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Endless Tale., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/45/4/)

<!-- 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/) / [Fifty Famous Stories Retold](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/) / [The Endless Tale.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/45/) / 4

# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, The Endless Tale., sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"There is only one fault that I find with your story," he often said: "it is too short."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** matter, fault · **What happens:** be, find, say · **To what, where:** one fault · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Endless Tale.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (matter, fault), 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:pg18442:45:4
# text = "There is only one fault that I find with your story," he often said: "it is too short."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	only	only	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
6	fault	fault	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	ccomp	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	find	find	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	often	often	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
19	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	too	too	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	23	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | one fault |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **find** *in a quote* | present | matter |  |  |  |  | with your story | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | matter |  |  |  |  | often *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | present | fault |  |  |  |  | short *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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:** «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Project Gutenberg book 18442 (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 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/45/3/)
- next →: [sentence 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/45/5/)
- ↑ back to [The Endless Tale.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/45/)