---
title: “If you allow me to choose it means that you do not want me very bad… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “If you allow me to choose it means that you do not want me very badly,” said she with a smile. Who acts: you. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter III, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter III, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“If you allow me to choose it means that you do not want me very badly,” said she with a smile.

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** allow, choose, mean, not want, say · **To what, where:** me, much · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter III. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you), 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:pg2892:64:24
# text = “If you allow me to choose it means that you do not want me very badly,” said she with a smile.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	allow	allow	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
5	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	choose	choose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	advcl	_	_
15	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	very	very	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	badly	badly	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
20	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
21	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	ccomp	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	smile	smile	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **allow** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | you |  | me |  |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: agent=Causer i=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **choose** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | much |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 3 | **mean** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **not** **want** *in a quote* | present · do-support | you | me |  |  |  | badly *property* | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot i=Theme |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=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:** «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Project Gutenberg book 2892 (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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