---
title: She replied to his questions, but she did not tell him all the truth… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: She replied to his questions, but she did not tell him all the truth; for, indeed, she could not afford to. Who acts: lady, Conn. 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 3

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She replied to his questions, but she did not tell him all the truth; for, indeed, she could not afford to.

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**Who acts:** lady, Conn · **What happens:** reply, not tell, not afford, question · **To what, where:** truth, Conn · **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 (lady, Conn), 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:pg2892:64:3
# text = She replied to his questions, but she did not tell him all the truth; for, indeed, she could not afford to.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	questions	question	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
8	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	iobj	_	_
13	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	15	det:predet	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
19	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
21	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	afford	afford	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | lady |  |  |  |  | to Conn's questions | vn respond-113 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to question=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | past · do-support | lady | all truth | Conn |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient truth=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **afford** | could | lady |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **question** |  | Conn |  |  |  |  |  | nom question «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

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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:** «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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