---
title: But she told him she dared not do so, at least if she did open the d… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But she told him she dared not do so, at least if she did open the door it must only be a very tiny chink; and Sigurd declared that would do quite well. Who acts: Helga, door, Sigurd. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 33, with its dependency tree and
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 33, sentence 102

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But she told him she dared not do so, at least if she did open the door it must only be a very tiny chink; and Sigurd declared that would do quite well.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Helga, door, Sigurd · **What happens:** tell, do, open, be, declare · **To what, where:** Sigurd, least, door, tiny chink · **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 33. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Helga, door, Sigurd), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg2435:33:102
# text = But she told him she dared not do so, at least if she did open the door it must only be a very tiny chink; and Sigurd declared that would do quite well.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	dared	dare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
8	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
9	so	so	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	least	least	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	8	obl	_	_
13	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	open	open	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
20	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
21	only	only	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
22	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	cop	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
24	very	very	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	chink	chink	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	30	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
29	Sigurd	Sigurd	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
30	declared	declare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
31	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
32	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	xcomp	_	_
34	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
35	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	33	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Helga |  | Sigurd |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **do** | past | Helga |  |  | least |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **open** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · do-support | Helga | the door |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location door=Theme |
| 4 | **is a** | must | door | a tiny chink |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **declare** *speech: other* | past | Sigurd |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 6 | **do** | would | Sigurd *not said here* |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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