---
title: "I cannot tell," said Ralph the Rover; "but I think we are not far f… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: "I cannot tell," said Ralph the Rover; "but I think we are not far from the Inchcape Rock. Who acts: Ralph, we. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Inchcape Rock., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, The Inchcape Rock., sentence 45

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"I cannot tell," said Ralph the Rover; "but I think we are not far from the Inchcape Rock.

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**Who acts:** Ralph, we · **What happens:** not tell, say, think, not be · **To what, where:** Inchcape Rock · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Inchcape Rock.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Ralph, we), 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:pg18442:48:45
# text = "I cannot tell," said Ralph the Rover; "but I think we are not far from the Inchcape Rock.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	Ralph	Ralph	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	Rover	Rover	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	think	think	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
17	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
20	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	ccomp	_	_
21	from	from	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	Inchcape	Inchcape	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	_
24	Rock	Rock	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | can | Ralph |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Ralph |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* *in a quote* | present | Ralph |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | present | we |  |  | the Inchcape Rock |  | far *property* | tree rules |

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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:** «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.

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