---
title: When I was a child, and you begged me to tell you, I had to keep sil… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When I was a child, and you begged me to tell you, I had to keep silence, or the Magyar king would have killed me. Who acts: I, you. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 8, sentence 26

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When I was a child, and you begged me to tell you, I had to keep silence, or the Magyar king would have killed me.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, you · **What happens:** be, beg, tell, have, keep, kill · **To what, where:** child, me, you, silence, Magyar king · **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 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, 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:pg2435:8:26
# text = When I was a child, and you begged me to tell you, I had to keep silence, or the Magyar king would have killed me.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
10	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	silence	silence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
21	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	Magyar	Magyar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	_
24	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
25	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	aux	_	_
27	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	advcl	_	_
28	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | I | a child |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | you |  | me |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  | you |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent you=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **have** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **keep** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | silence |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent silence=Theme |
| 6 | **kill** | would · perfect · passive |  | the Magyar king |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Experiencer i=Result |

<!-- .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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