---
title: “I can't tell thee,” said he, “but go on a little farther, and thou… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “I can't tell thee,” said he, “but go on a little farther, and thou wilt come to the hen-wife, and she is sure to know.” Who acts: Childe, thou, word. 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 31

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“I can't tell thee,” said he, “but go on a little farther, and thou wilt come to the hen-wife, and she is sure to know.”

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**Who acts:** Childe, thou, word · **What happens:** not tell, say, go, come, be, know · **To what, where:** thee · **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 (Childe, thou, word), 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:pg7439:24:31
# text = “I can't tell thee,” said he, “but go on a little farther, and thou wilt come to the hen-wife, and she is sure to know.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
6	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	5	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	go	go	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	obl	_	_
18	farther	far	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	23	nsubj	_	_
22	wilt	will	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
26	hen	hen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
31	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
32	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
33	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	parataxis	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | can | Childe |  | thee |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent thou=Recipient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Childe |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **go** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | far *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **come** *in a quote* | future | thou |  |  |  |  | to the hen wife | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to wife=Initial\_Location |
| 5 | **is** *in a quote* | present | word |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **know** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | word *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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