---
title: “Can you tell me the way then, and I will seek you--that I may surel… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Can you tell me the way then, and I will seek you--that I may surely be allowed to do!” Who acts: you, mother. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, sentence 59

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“Can you tell me the way then, and I will seek you--that I may surely be allowed to do!”

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**Who acts:** you, mother · **What happens:** tell, seek, allow, do · **To what, where:** way, mother, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, East of the Sun and West of the Moon. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, mother), 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:pg503:4:59
# text = “Can you tell me the way then, and I will seek you--that I may surely be allowed to do!”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	seek	seek	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
14	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
19	surely	surely	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	allowed	allow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	conj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | can | you | the way | mother |  | then |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient way=Topic |
| 2 | **seek** *in a quote* | future | mother | you |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Theme |
| 3 | **allow** *in a quote* | may · passive |  | mother |  |  |  | surely *property* | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: subject=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **do** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | mother *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: 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:** «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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