---
title: “Dear mother,” said her son in despair, “if you will not tell me wha… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Dear mother,” said her son in despair, “if you will not tell me what is the cause of all this misery I shall leave home and wander far through the world.” Who acts: Dear mother, you. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 37, with its dependency tree and
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 37, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Dear mother,” said her son in despair, “if you will not tell me what is the cause of all this misery I shall leave home and wander far through the world.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Dear mother, you · **What happens:** say, not tell, be, leave, wander · **To what, where:** son, despair, Dear mother, cause, misery, world · **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 37. 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, you), 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:pg2435:37:24
# text = “Dear mother,” said her son in despair, “if you will not tell me what is the cause of all this misery I shall leave home and wander far through the world.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	despair	despair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
14	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	parataxis	_	_
18	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	iobj	_	_
19	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	22	nsubj	_	_
20	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	cause	cause	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	parataxis	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	26	det:predet	_	_
25	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	26	det	_	_
26	misery	misery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
27	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	leave	leave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	acl:relcl	_	_
30	home	home	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	wander	wander	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	conj	_	_
33	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	32	advmod	_	_
34	through	through	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Dear mother | mother's son |  | despair |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | future | you |  | Dear mother *= mother* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Recipient |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | the cause |  |  |  | of all misery | tree rules |
| 4 | **leave** *in a quote* | shall | Dear mother *= mother* | all misery *not said here* |  |  |  | home *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent misery=Theme |
| 5 | **wander** *in a quote* | present | Dear mother *= mother* *not said here* |  |  | the world |  | far *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through world=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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