---
title: “No, we can’t afford that,” said the old people; “it will be too dea… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “No, we can’t afford that,” said the old people; “it will be too dear for the like of us.” Who acts: we, old people, house. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 30, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 30, sentence 89

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“No, we can’t afford that,” said the old people; “it will be too dear for the like of us.”

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**Who acts:** we, old people, house · **What happens:** not afford, say, be · **To what, where:** that · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 30. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we, old people, house), 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:pg2435:30:89
# text = “No, we can’t afford that,” said the old people; “it will be too dear for the like of us.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	afford	afford	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
8	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
16	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
18	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
19	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	cop	_	_
20	too	too	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	parataxis	_	_
22	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	obl	_	_
24	like	like	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **afford** *in a quote* | can | we | that |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the old people |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | future | house |  |  |  |  | for the; dear *property* | 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:** «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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