---
title: 'Mother, dear mother,' said the young man at last, 'I am almost afra… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'Mother, dear mother,' said the young man at last, 'I am almost afraid to ask you; but I really have grown so stupid of late. Who acts: Mother, I. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 36, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 36, sentence 47

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
'Mother, dear mother,' said the young man at last, 'I am almost afraid to ask you; but I really have grown so stupid of late.

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**Who acts:** Mother, I · **What happens:** say, be, ask, grow · **To what, where:** last, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 36. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Mother, I), 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:pg3027:36:47
# text = 'Mother, dear mother,' said the young man at last, 'I am almost afraid to ask you; but I really have grown so stupid of late.
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	parataxis	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
26	really	really	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
27	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	grown	grow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	conj	_	_
29	so	so	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	stupid	stupid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	xcomp	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	late	late	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Mother and dear mother |  |  | last |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | present | I |  |  |  |  | afraid, almost *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  | you |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |
| 4 | **grow** | present · perfect | I |  |  |  |  | stupid *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 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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