---
title: The only reason, I imagine, why such tales have not hitherto been br… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The only reason, I imagine, why such tales have not hitherto been brought to light, is the lamentable gap between the governing and recording classes and the dumb working classes of this country--dumb to others but eloquent among themselves. Who acts: I, only reason. A sentence of «English Fairy Tal
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/3/9/)

<!-- 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/) / [English Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/) / [\_to My Dear Little May\_](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/3/) / 9

# English Fairy Tales, \_to My Dear Little May\_, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The only reason, I imagine, why such tales have not hitherto been brought to light, is the lamentable gap between the governing and recording classes and the dumb working classes of this country--dumb to others but eloquent among themselves.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, only reason · **What happens:** imagine, not bring, be · **To what, where:** only reason, such tales, light, lamentable gap

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, \_to My Dear Little May\_. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, only reason), 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:pg7439:3:9
# text = The only reason, I imagine, why such tales have not hitherto been brought to light, is the lamentable gap between the governing and recording classes and the dumb working classes of this country--dumb to others but eloquent among themselves.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	only	only	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	imagine	imagine	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
8	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	15	advmod	_	_
9	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	tales	tale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
13	hitherto	hitherto	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
14	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	15	aux:pass	_	_
15	brought	bring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
19	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	lamentable	lamentable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	gap	gap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
23	between	between	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	governing	governing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	recording	recording	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	_
28	classes	class	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	conj	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
31	dumb	dumb	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
32	working	working	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	compound	_	_
33	classes	class	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	conj	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	36	det	_	_
36	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	dumb	dumb	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	parataxis	_	_
39	to	to	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	obl	_	_
41	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
42	eloquent	eloquent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	conj	_	_
43	among	among	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
44	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	42	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **imagine** | present | I | the only reason *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot reason=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **bring** | present · perfect · passive |  | such tales |  | light |  | hitherto *property* | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme to light=Destination |
| 3 | **is a** | present | the only reason | the lamentable gap |  |  |  | between the governing and recording classes and the dumb working classes of this country | 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:** «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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/3/8/)
- next →: [sentence 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/3/10/)
- ↑ back to [\_to My Dear Little May\_](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/3/)