---
title: “I am afraid that you were not taught to speak the truth,” retorted… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “I am afraid that you were not taught to speak the truth,” retorted the rock. Who acts: rock, you. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 16, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 16, sentence 64

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“I am afraid that you were not taught to speak the truth,” retorted the rock.

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**Who acts:** rock, you · **What happens:** be, not teach, speak, retort · **To what, where:** you, truth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (rock, 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:pg3282:16:64
# text = “I am afraid that you were not taught to speak the truth,” retorted the rock.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	ccomp	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
6	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux:pass	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	taught	teach	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	ccomp	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
16	retorted	retort	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | the rock *= rock* |  |  |  |  | afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **teach** *speech: other* *in a quote* | past · passive |  | you |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* *in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | the truth |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **retort** *speech: other* | past | the rock |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: 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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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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