---
title: Whereupon the tortoise wanted to say, "If my friends choose to carry… — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Whereupon the tortoise wanted to say, "If my friends choose to carry me, what is that to you, you wretched slaves!" Who acts: tortoise, friends, that, you. A sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/17/62/)

<!-- 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/) / [Indian Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/) / [Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/17/) / 62

# Indian Fairy Tales, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 11, sentence 62

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Whereupon the tortoise wanted to say, "If my friends choose to carry me, what is that to you, you wretched slaves!"

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** tortoise, friends, that, you · **What happens:** want, say, choose, carry, be, slave · **To what, where:** tortoise, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tortoise, friends, that, 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:pg7128:17:62
# text = Whereupon the tortoise wanted to say, "If my friends choose to carry me, what is that to you, you wretched slaves!"
1	Whereupon	whereupon	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
12	choose	choose	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
17	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	parataxis	_	_
18	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
19	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	nsubj	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	wretched	wretched	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	slaves	slave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	25	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** | past | the tortoise |  |  |  |  | whereupon *property* | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: express* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the tortoise *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **choose** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | my friends |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **carry** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | my friends *not said here* | the tortoise *= tortoise* |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme |
| 5 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | that |  | you |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **slave** *in a quote* |  | you |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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:** «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7128 (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 61](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/17/61/)
- next →: [sentence 63](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/17/63/)
- ↑ back to [Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/17/)