---
title: “Oh, mother, I had such a nice dream last night,” said he; “but I ca… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Oh, mother, I had such a nice dream last night,” said he; “but I can’t tell it to anybody.” Who acts: Boy. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 6, sentence 85

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“Oh, mother, I had such a nice dream last night,” said he; “but I can’t tell it to anybody.”

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**Who acts:** Boy · **What happens:** have, say, not tell · **To what, where:** nice dream, dream, anybody · **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 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Boy), 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:pg2435:6:85
# text = “Oh, mother, I had such a nice dream last night,” said he; “but I can’t tell it to anybody.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	ccomp	_	_
8	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	11	det:predet	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	nice	nice	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	dream	dream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
12	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
16	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
19	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	ccomp	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	anybody	anybody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** *in a quote* | past | Boy | such nice dream |  |  | night |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dream=Patient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | can | Boy | dream | anybody |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Topic to anybody=Recipient |

<!-- .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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