---
title: "Come, dear child," was what he wanted to say, "let me give you a ri… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "Come, dear child," was what he wanted to say, "let me give you a ride on my back." Who acts: you, bull. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Dragon's Teeth., part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Dragon's Teeth., part 1, sentence 38

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Come, dear child," was what he wanted to say, "let me give you a ride on my back."

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**Who acts:** you, bull · **What happens:** come, be, want, say, let, give · **To what, where:** dear child, bull, ride, you, back · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Dragon's Teeth., part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, bull), 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:pg976:10:38
# text = "Come, dear child," was what he wanted to say, "let me give you a ride on my back."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Come	come	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
9	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	2	conj	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
17	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
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	ride	ride	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** *in a quote* | imperative | you *not said here* | dear child |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | past | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **want** | past | bull |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | bull *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **let** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | bull |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **give** *in a quote* | infinitive | bull *not said here* | a ride | you | my back |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent you=Recipient ride=Theme on back=Asset |

<!-- .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.

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**Text:** «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Project Gutenberg book 976 (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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