---
title: “I can do nothing,” he said; “as I don't know the right words to utt… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “I can do nothing,” he said; “as I don't know the right words to utter, and they are locked up in yon book.” Who acts: shell. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Master and His Pupil, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The Master and His Pupil, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“I can do nothing,” he said; “as I don't know the right words to utter, and they are locked up in yon book.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** shell · **What happens:** do, say, not know, utter, lock up · **To what, where:** nothing, right words, words, yon book · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Master and His Pupil. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (shell), 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:pg7439:18:8
# text = “I can do nothing,” he said; “as I don't know the right words to utter, and they are locked up in yon book.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
5	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	utter	utter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj:pass	_	_
25	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux:pass	_	_
26	locked	lock	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	conj	_	_
27	up	up	ADP	RP	_	26	compound:prt	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	yon	yon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	compound	_	_
30	book	book	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** *in a quote* | can | shell | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Eventuality |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | shell |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **know** *in a quote* | present · do-support | shell | the right words |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer word=Stimulus |
| 4 | **utter** *speech: other* *in a quote* | to-infinitive | shell *not said here* | the right words *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **lock up** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | words *= word* |  | yon book |  |  | vn tape-22.4 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |

<!-- .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:** «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7439 (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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