---
title: I say not that," says the herd; "there is no knowing, but that may b… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: I say not that," says the herd; "there is no knowing, but that may be easier to say than to do." Who acts: I, that. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Sea-maiden, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Sea-maiden, sentence 43

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I say not that," says the herd; "there is no knowing, but that may be easier to say than to do."

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**Who acts:** I, that · **What happens:** not say, say, be, know, do · **To what, where:** herd · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Sea-maiden. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, that), 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:pg7885:21:43
# text = I say not that," says the herd; "there is no knowing, but that may be easier to say than to do."
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	2	advmod	_	_
4	that	that	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
7	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	herd	herd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	13	expl	_	_
13	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
14	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	15	det	_	_
15	knowing	know	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
18	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	nsubj	_	_
19	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	cop	_	_
21	easier	easy	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	7	ccomp	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	csubj	_	_
24	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* | present | I |  |  |  |  | that *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present |  | the herd |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent herd=Topic |
| 3 | **be** | present |  |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **know** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **is** | may | that |  |  |  |  | easy *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 7 | **do** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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:** «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7885 (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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