---
title: So when his wife brought him a daughter, bonny as bonny could be, he… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: So when his wife brought him a daughter, bonny as bonny could be, he cared nought for her, and said, "Let me never see her face." Who acts: wife, daughter, gentleman. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 17, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 17, sentence 69

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So when his wife brought him a daughter, bonny as bonny could be, he cared nought for her, and said, "Let me never see her face."

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**Who acts:** wife, daughter, gentleman · **What happens:** bring, be, care, say, let, not see · **To what, where:** gentleman, nought, wife, face · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wife, daughter, gentleman), 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:pg14241:31:69
# text = So when his wife brought him a daughter, bonny as bonny could be, he cared nought for her, and said, "Let me never see her face."
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	brought	bring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	bonny	bonny	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
11	as	as	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	bonny	bonny	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
13	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	cared	care	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
18	nought	nought	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	17	obj	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	Let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	ccomp	_	_
27	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
29	see	see	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	advcl	_	_
30	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	26	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bring** | past | gentleman's wife | gentleman |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **can** | could | a daughter and bonny as bonny |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **care** | past | gentleman | nought |  |  |  | for daughter | tree rules |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | gentleman's wife *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **let** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | gentleman's wife *= wife* |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme |
| 6 | **not** **see** *in a quote* | present |  | daughter's face |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer face=Stimulus |

<!-- .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:** «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 14241 (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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