---
title: I could not tell; yet I knew I could not alter my own condition, eit… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: I could not tell; yet I knew I could not alter my own condition, either by barking or growling." Who acts: I, my. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, II. the Journey to the New Home, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, II. the Journey to the New Home, sentence 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I could not tell; yet I knew I could not alter my own condition, either by barking or growling."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, my · **What happens:** not tell, know, not alter, bark, growl, condition · **To what, where:** own condition · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, II. the Journey to the New Home. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, my), 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:pg27200:53:17
# text = I could not tell; yet I knew I could not alter my own condition, either by barking or growling."
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	yet	yet	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	alter	alter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
13	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
14	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	condition	condition	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	either	either	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc:preconj	_	_
18	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
19	barking	bark	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
20	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	growling	growl	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | could | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **know** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **not** **alter** | could | I | my own condition |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent condition=Patient |
| 4 | **bark** | gerund | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **growl** | gerund | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **condition** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom condition «state transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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.

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**Text:** «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 27200 (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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