---
title: ‘I can well believe that,’ said the peasant, ‘for you had nothing at… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I can well believe that,’ said the peasant, ‘for you had nothing at all to start with. Who acts: I, you. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 14, 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/pg5615/14/70/)

<!-- 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/) / [The Pink Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/) / [The Pink Fairy Book, part 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/14/) / 70

# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 14, sentence 70

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘I can well believe that,’ said the peasant, ‘for you had nothing at all to start with.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, you · **What happens:** believe, say, have, start · **To what, where:** peasant, nothing, all · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, you), 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:pg5615:14:70
# text = ‘I can well believe that,’ said the peasant, ‘for you had nothing at all to start with.
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	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	_
5	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	peasant	peasant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
17	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	16	obj	_	_
18	at	at	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	17	nmod	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	start	start	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	acl	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **believe** | can | I |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the peasant |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent peasant=Topic |
| 3 | **have** | past | you | nothing |  | all |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient |
| 4 | **start** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | nothing *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=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:** «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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 69](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/14/69/)
- next →: [sentence 71](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/14/71/)
- ↑ back to [The Pink Fairy Book, part 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/14/)