---
title: ‘Why, that you, a gazelle, should be able to speak, for, from the be… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Why, that you, a gazelle, should be able to speak, for, from the beginning, my father and mother and all the people that are in the world have never told me of a talking gazelle.’ Who acts: you, people. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of a Gazelle, with its dependenc
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of a Gazelle, sentence 22

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Why, that you, a gazelle, should be able to speak, for, from the beginning, my father and mother and all the people that are in the world have never told me of a talking gazelle.’

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**Who acts:** you, people · **What happens:** be, speak, not tell, talk · **To what, where:** world, beginning, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of a Gazelle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, people), 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:pg641:15:22
# text = ‘Why, that you, a gazelle, should be able to speak, for, from the beginning, my father and mother and all the people that are in the world have never told me of a talking gazelle.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	gazelle	gazelle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
10	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	cop	_	_
12	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	advcl:relcl	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	from	from	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	beginning	beginning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
27	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	29	det:predet	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	conj	_	_
30	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	34	nsubj	_	_
31	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	acl:relcl	_	_
35	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
36	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	37	advmod	_	_
37	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	ccomp	_	_
38	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	37	iobj	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
40	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
41	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	42	amod	_	_
42	gazelle	gazelle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | should | you |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | present | all people |  |  | the world |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | present · perfect · passive |  | the beginning and my father and mother and all people | me |  |  | of a talking gazelle | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient i=Topic |
| 5 | **talk** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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