---
title: God alone knoweth the truth of these things; I speak nothing but wha… — Legends of the conquest of Spain · tree and pragmatics
description: God alone knoweth the truth of these things; I speak nothing but what has been handed down to me from times of old.” Who acts: God, I. A sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Story of the Marvellous and Portentous Tower., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# Legends of the conquest of Spain, Story of the Marvellous and Portentous Tower., sentence 89

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God alone knoweth the truth of these things; I speak nothing but what has been handed down to me from times of old.”

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**Who acts:** God, I · **What happens:** know, speak, hand down · **To what, where:** truth, nothing, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Story of the Marvellous and Portentous Tower.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (God, I), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg77685:8:89
# text = God alone knoweth the truth of these things; I speak nothing but what has been handed down to me from times of old.”
1	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	knoweth	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	8	det	_	_
8	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	speak	speak	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	11	obj	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	17	obj	_	_
15	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	handed	hand	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	conj	_	_
18	down	down	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	_
21	from	from	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | present | God | the truth of this things |  |  |  | alone *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer truth=Stimulus |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | present | I | nothing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **hand down** | present · perfect · passive | I *not said here* |  | me |  | time | what *obj* | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: what=Theme to i=Destination |

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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:** «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Project Gutenberg book 77685 (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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