---
title: 'I have no parents; they died when I was six, sire,' replied the you… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'I have no parents; they died when I was six, sire,' replied the youth, modestly. ' Who acts: I, parents. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 38, 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/pg3027/38/12/)

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 38, sentence 12

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'I have no parents; they died when I was six, sire,' replied the youth, modestly. '

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**Who acts:** I, parents · **What happens:** have, die, be, reply · **To what, where:** parents, six, youth

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 38. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, parents), 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:pg3027:38:12
# text = 'I have no parents; they died when I was six, sire,' replied the youth, modestly. '
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	5	det	_	_
5	parents	parent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
9	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	12	mark	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
12	six	six	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	sire	sire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
17	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	modestly	modestly	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
23	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | I | no parents |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent parent=Patient |
| 2 | **die** | past | parents *= parent* |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 3 | **is a** | past | I | six and sire |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | parents *= parent* *not said here* | the youth |  |  |  | modestly *property* | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent youth=Topic |

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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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