---
title: 'Oh, my child! my dear child! why were you ever born?' cried he, as… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'Oh, my child! my dear child! why were you ever born?' cried he, as soon as he could speak. Who acts: dear child, king. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 29, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/29/38/)

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 29, sentence 38

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'Oh, my child! my dear child! why were you ever born?' cried he, as soon as he could speak.

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**Who acts:** dear child, king · **What happens:** bear, cry, speak · **To what, where:** you, child · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 29. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dear child, king), 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:pg3027:29:38
# text = 'Oh, my child! my dear child! why were you ever born?' cried he, as soon as he could speak.
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
7	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
11	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	15	advmod	_	_
12	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux:pass	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	15	advmod	_	_
15	born	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
18	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	as	as	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	18	advmod	_	_
23	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bear** | past · passive |  | you |  |  | ever |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | my dear child | my child |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Topic |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | could | king |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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 Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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