---
title: I wish you were my son," he said; "but as I never had a child, you c… — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: I wish you were my son," he said; "but as I never had a child, you cannot be my son." " Who acts: I, you, King. A sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 18, 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/pg7128/24/138/)

<!-- 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 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/24/) / 138

# Indian Fairy Tales, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 18, sentence 138

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I wish you were my son," he said; "but as I never had a child, you cannot be my son." "

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, you, King · **What happens:** wish, be, say, not have, not be · **To what, where:** son, child · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 18. 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, King), 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:pg7128:24:138
# text = I wish you were my son," he said; "but as I never had a child, you cannot be my son." "
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	wish	wish	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	ccomp	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
12	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
14	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	advcl	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
22	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
24	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	cop	_	_
25	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	26	punct	_	_
29	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wish** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 2 | **is a** | past | you | my son |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | King |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **not** **have** | past | I | a child |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Patient |
| 5 | **not** **is a** | can | you | my son |  |  |  |  | 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 137](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/24/137/)
- next →: [sentence 139](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/24/139/)
- ↑ back to [Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/24/)