---
title: ‘I can hardly do that,’ said he, ‘for, to speak more plainly, I mean… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I can hardly do that,’ said he, ‘for, to speak more plainly, I mean that I met the Duchess Grumbly, and have promised to marry her.’ Who acts: I, St.. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Graciosa and Percinet, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Graciosa and Percinet, part 1, sentence 37

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘I can hardly do that,’ said he, ‘for, to speak more plainly, I mean that I met the Duchess Grumbly, and have promised to marry her.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, St. · **What happens:** do, say, speak, mean, meet, promise · **To what, where:** that, Duchess Grumbly, Grumbly · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Graciosa and Percinet, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, St.), 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:pg540:23:37
# text = ‘I can hardly do that,’ said he, ‘for, to speak more plainly, I mean that I met the Duchess Grumbly, and have promised to marry her.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	parataxis	_	_
6	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
12	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
17	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	18	advmod	_	_
18	plainly	plainly	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	mean	mean	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	met	meet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	ccomp	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	Duchess	Duchess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	_
27	Grumbly	Grumbly	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
30	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	promised	promise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	ccomp	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	marry	marry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	xcomp	_	_
34	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | can | I | that |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Eventuality |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | St. |  |  |  |  | plainly *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **mean** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **meet** | past | I | the Duchess Grumbly |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent grumbly=Co-Agent |
| 6 | **promise** *speech: promise* | present · perfect |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 7 | **marry** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  | Grumbly |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Patient |

<!-- .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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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- ← previous: [sentence 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/23/36/)
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