---
title: The youth began to sob, and stammered out: “I—I hardly know how to t… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The youth began to sob, and stammered out: “I—I hardly know how to tell you! Who acts: youth, I. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 26, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 26, sentence 95

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The youth began to sob, and stammered out: “I—I hardly know how to tell you!

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**Who acts:** youth, I · **What happens:** begin, sob, stammer out, know, tell · **To what, where:** you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 26. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (youth, I), 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:pg2435:26:95
# text = The youth began to sob, and stammered out: “I—I hardly know how to tell you!
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	sob	sob	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	stammered	stammer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
9	out	out	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	parataxis	_	_
17	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | the youth |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **sob** | to-infinitive | the youth *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **stammer out** *speech: other* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **know** *in a quote* | present | I |  |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  | you |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |

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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:** «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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