---
title: I would gladly help you if I could; but I doubt whether I am strong… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: I would gladly help you if I could; but I doubt whether I am strong enough to carry you across." Who acts: I. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Golden Fleece., part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Golden Fleece., part 1, sentence 47

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I would gladly help you if I could; but I doubt whether I am strong enough to carry you across."

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** help, doubt, be, carry · **To what, where:** you

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This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Golden Fleece., 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 (I), 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:pg976:25:47
# text = I would gladly help you if I could; but I doubt whether I am strong enough to carry you across."
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	gladly	gladly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	doubt	doubt	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
13	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
16	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	ccomp	_	_
17	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	across	across	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	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 | **help** | would | I |  | you |  |  | gladly *property* | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Beneficiary |
| 2 | **doubt** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | present | I |  |  |  |  | enough, strong *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **carry** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | you |  |  |  | across *property* | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Theme |

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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:** «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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