---
title: “No,” says the cat, “I'll not give you your tail, till you go to the… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “No,” says the cat, “I'll not give you your tail, till you go to the cow, and fetch me some milk.” Who acts: cat, you. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Cat and the Mouse, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The Cat and the Mouse, sentence 4

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“No,” says the cat, “I'll not give you your tail, till you go to the cow, and fetch me some milk.”

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**Who acts:** cat, you · **What happens:** say, not give, go, fetch · **To what, where:** tail, you, milk, cat · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Cat and the Mouse. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cat, you), 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:pg7439:40:4
# text = “No,” says the cat, “I'll not give you your tail, till you go to the cow, and fetch me some milk.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	'll	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
14	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	13	iobj	_	_
15	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	go	go	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	fetch	fetch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	advcl	_	_
27	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	29	det	_	_
29	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | the cat |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **give** *in a quote* | future | the cat *= cat* | your tail | you |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent you=Recipient tail=Theme |
| 3 | **go** *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  | to the cow | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to cow=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **fetch** *in a quote* | infinitive | you *not said here* | some milk | the cat *= cat* |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: agent=Agent i=Beneficiary milk=Theme |

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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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