---
title: 'The past cannot be undone,' went on the raven. ' — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'The past cannot be undone,' went on the raven. ' A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/5/72/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Orange Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/) / [Opening, part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/5/) / 72

# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 5, sentence 72

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
'The past cannot be undone,' went on the raven. '

<!-- .vintro -->
**What happens:** not undo, go · **To what, where:** past, raven

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3027:5:72
# text = 'The past cannot be undone,' went on the raven. '
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	past	past	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	undone	undo	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
10	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	raven	raven	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
15	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **undo** | can · passive |  | the past |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **go** | past |  |  |  | the raven |  |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on raven=Location |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 71](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/5/71/)
- next →: [sentence 73](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/5/73/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/5/)