---
title: "I'm sure I beg your pardon," said my grandfather "but might I ask y… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "I'm sure I beg your pardon," said my grandfather "but might I ask you a question?" Who acts: grandfather, Patrick, your. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Andrew Coffey, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, Andrew Coffey, sentence 63

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"I'm sure I beg your pardon," said my grandfather "but might I ask you a question?"

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**Who acts:** grandfather, Patrick, your · **What happens:** be, beg, say, ask, pardon · **To what, where:** pardon, question, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Andrew Coffey. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (grandfather, Patrick, your), 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:pg7885:27:63
# text = "I'm sure I beg your pardon," said my grandfather "but might I ask you a question?"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	'm	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	beg	beg	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
7	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	pardon	pardon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
12	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	grandfather	grandfather	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
14	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	iobj	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	question	question	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | my grandfather *= grandfather* |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **beg** *speech: request* *in a quote* | present | my grandfather *= grandfather* | your pardon |  |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent pardon=Recipient |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | my grandfather |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* *in a quote* | might | Patrick | a question | you |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **pardon** *in a quote* |  | your |  |  |  |  |  | nom pardon «act transitive»: poss=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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