---
title: “Only women say, ‘I cannot,’ only cowards say, ‘I dare not,’” laughe… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: “Only women say, ‘I cannot,’ only cowards say, ‘I dare not,’” laughed the maiden cheerily. Who acts: women, cowards, I. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Great Pike, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Great Pike, sentence 51

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“Only women say, ‘I cannot,’ only cowards say, ‘I dare not,’” laughed the maiden cheerily.

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**Who acts:** women, cowards, I · **What happens:** say, ', not dare, laugh · **To what, where:** maiden · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Great Pike. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (women, cowards, I), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66819:25:51
# text = “Only women say, ‘I cannot,’ only cowards say, ‘I dare not,’” laughed the maiden cheerily.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Only	only	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’	'	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
12	only	only	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	cowards	coward	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
14	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	dare	dare	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	ccomp	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	21	punct	_	_
23	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	maiden	maiden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	obl:unmarked	_	_
26	cheerily	cheerily	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present | women |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **'** *in a quote* | infinitive | women *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present | cowards |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **not** **dare** *in a quote* | present | cowards *= coward* |  |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **laugh** | past | I *not said here* | the maiden |  |  |  | cheerily *property* | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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 Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, Project Gutenberg book 66819 (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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