---
title: Then he asked them not to speak of him to anyone, and to keep his af… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he asked them not to speak of him to anyone, and to keep his affairs secret. Who acts: prince. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 2, sentence 25

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Then he asked them not to speak of him to anyone, and to keep his affairs secret.

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**Who acts:** prince · **What happens:** ask, not speak, keep · **To what, where:** drums, affairs secret · **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 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (prince), 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:pg3282:2:25
# text = Then he asked them not to speak of him to anyone, and to keep his affairs secret.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	anyone	anyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
17	affairs	affairs	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	secret	secret	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | prince |  | drums *= drum* |  | then |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **speak** *speech: other* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of prince; to anyone | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to anyone=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **keep** | to-infinitive | prince *not said here* | prince's affairs secret |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent secret=Theme |

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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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