---
title: "Well, but, dear mother," asked the boy, "why cannot I go to this fa… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "Well, but, dear mother," asked the boy, "why cannot I go to this famous city of Athens, and tell King Aegeus that I am his son?" Who acts: dear mother. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Minotaur., part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Minotaur., part 1, sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Well, but, dear mother," asked the boy, "why cannot I go to this famous city of Athens, and tell King Aegeus that I am his son?"

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**Who acts:** dear mother · **What happens:** ask, not go, tell, be · **To what, where:** boy, famous city, King, son · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Minotaur., 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 (dear mother), 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:pg976:3:11
# text = "Well, but, dear mother," asked the boy, "why cannot I go to this famous city of Athens, and tell King Aegeus that I am his son?"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	_
10	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	_
16	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
18	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	23	det	_	_
22	famous	famous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	Athens	Athens	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
29	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	iobj	_	_
30	Aegeus	Aegeus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	flat	_	_
31	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
32	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
33	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	35	cop	_	_
34	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	28	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | dear mother |  | the boy |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP that S»: agent=Agent boy=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **go** *in a quote* | can | dear mother *= mother* |  |  | this famous city of Athens |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to city=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  | King |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent king=Recipient |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | dear mother *= mother* | boy's son |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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