---
title: “No, mother; I can’t tell it to anybody,” returned the boy, “till it… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “No, mother; I can’t tell it to anybody,” returned the boy, “till it comes true.” Who acts: mother, dream. 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 88

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“No, mother; I can’t tell it to anybody,” returned the boy, “till it comes true.”

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**Who acts:** mother, dream · **What happens:** not tell, return, come · **To what, where:** dream, anybody, boy · **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 (mother, dream), 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:pg2435:6:88
# text = “No, mother; I can’t tell it to anybody,” returned the boy, “till it comes true.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	anybody	anybody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
15	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	comes	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
23	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | can | mother | dream | anybody |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Topic to anybody=Recipient |
| 2 | **return** | past | mother | the boy |  |  |  |  | vn send-11.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent boy=Theme |
| 3 | **come** *in a quote* | present | dream |  |  |  |  | true *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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