---
title: "'I am not,' said I, 'but the ropes are so tight that I take long to… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "'I am not,' said I, 'but the ropes are so tight that I take long to loose them.' Who acts: leech, ropes. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Conall Yellowclaw, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, Conall Yellowclaw, sentence 130

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"'I am not,' said I, 'but the ropes are so tight that I take long to loose them.'

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**Who acts:** leech, ropes · **What happens:** say, be, take, lose · **To what, where:** ropes · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Conall Yellowclaw. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (leech, ropes), 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:pg7885:9:130
# text = "'I am not,' said I, 'but the ropes are so tight that I take long to loose them.'
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
11	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	ropes	rope	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
15	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	tight	tight	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	take	take	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	_
21	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	20	advmod	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	loose	lose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	advcl	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | leech |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | present | the ropes |  |  |  |  | tight *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **take** *in a quote* | present | leech |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **lose** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | leech *not said here* | ropes *= rope* |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Eventuality |

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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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