---
title: “If you must tell me what to do,” said Conn, “tell me at least to do… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “If you must tell me what to do,” said Conn, “tell me at least to do something that I can do.” Who acts: you, Conn. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VII, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/68/38/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Irish Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/) / [Chapter VII](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/68/) / 38

# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VII, sentence 38

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“If you must tell me what to do,” said Conn, “tell me at least to do something that I can do.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, Conn · **What happens:** tell, do, say · **To what, where:** me, Conn, least, something · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VII. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, Conn), 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:pg2892:68:38
# text = “If you must tell me what to do,” said Conn, “tell me at least to do something that I can do.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
6	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	iobj	_	_
7	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	9	obj	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	Conn	Conn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
17	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	iobj	_	_
18	at	at	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	least	least	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	16	obl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	ccomp	_	_
22	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	21	obj	_	_
23	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	obj	_	_
24	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | must | you |  | me |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **do** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Conn |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  | Conn | least |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **do** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive |  | something |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent something=Eventuality |
| 6 | **do** *in a quote* | can | Conn |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Eventuality |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/68/37/)
- next →: [sentence 39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/68/39/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter VII](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/68/)