---
title: Whether the centre of dispersion was India or not, it is impossible… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Whether the centre of dispersion was India or not, it is impossible to say, as it might have spread east from Smyrna (Hahn, No. 56). A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, XVI. Tatty Mouse and Tatty Mouse., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/66/30/)

<!-- 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/) / [XVI. Tatty Mouse and Tatty Mouse.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/66/) / 30

# English Fairy Tales, XVI. Tatty Mouse and Tatty Mouse., sentence 30

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Whether the centre of dispersion was India or not, it is impossible to say, as it might have spread east from Smyrna (Hahn, No. 56).

<!-- .vintro -->
**What happens:** be, say, spread · **To what, where:** centre, Smyrna · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, XVI. Tatty Mouse and Tatty Mouse.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg7439:66:30
# text = Whether the centre of dispersion was India or not, it is impossible to say, as it might have spread east from Smyrna (Hahn, No. 56).
1	Whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	centre	centre	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	advcl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	dispersion	dispersion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	India	India	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
8	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	expl	_	_
12	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	csubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	aux	_	_
21	spread	spread	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	ccomp	_	_
22	east	east	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
23	from	from	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	Smyrna	Smyrna	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	Hahn	Hahn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
28	No.	No.	PROPN	NNP	Abbr=Yes|Number=Sing	26	appos	_	_
29	56	56	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	28	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | of dispersion India | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | impossible *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **spread** | might · perfect · passive |  | centre |  | Smyrna |  | east *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=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.

<!-- 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 29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/66/29/)
- next →: [sentence 31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/66/31/)
- ↑ back to [XVI. Tatty Mouse and Tatty Mouse.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/66/)