---
title: “Canst thou tell me,” said Childe Rowland to the horse-herd, “where… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Canst thou tell me,” said Childe Rowland to the horse-herd, “where the King of Elfland's Dark Tower is?” Who acts: thou, Childe, King. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Childe Rowland, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Childe Rowland, sentence 28

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“Canst thou tell me,” said Childe Rowland to the horse-herd, “where the King of Elfland's Dark Tower is?”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** thou, Childe, King · **What happens:** tell, say, be · **To what, where:** Childe, horse herd · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Childe Rowland. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (thou, Childe, King), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg7439:24:28
# text = “Canst thou tell me,” said Childe Rowland to the horse-herd, “where the King of Elfland's Dark Tower is?”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Canst	can	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	4	nsubj	_	_
4	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
5	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	Childe	Childe	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
10	Rowland	Rowland	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	flat	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	herd	herd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
17	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	26	advmod	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
22	Elfland	Elfland	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	's	's	PART	POS	_	22	case	_	_
24	Dark	Dark	ADJ	NNP	Degree=Pos	25	compound	_	_
25	Tower	Tower	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
26	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	26	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | can | thou |  | Childe |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Recipient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | Childe |  | the horse herd |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to herd=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **be** *in a quote* | present | the King of Elfland's Dark Tower |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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