---
title: He said to himself, “God forbid that the veil should be taken in vai… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He said to himself, “God forbid that the veil should be taken in vain from my secret; that would indeed disgrace me.” Who acts: prince, God, that. 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 67

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He said to himself, “God forbid that the veil should be taken in vain from my secret; that would indeed disgrace me.”

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**Who acts:** prince, God, that · **What happens:** say, forbid, take, disgrace · **To what, where:** prince, veil, vain · **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, God, that), 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:pg3282:2:67
# text = He said to himself, “God forbid that the veil should be taken in vain from my secret; that would indeed disgrace me.”
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	forbid	forbid	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	veil	veil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	advcl	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	obl	_	_
17	from	from	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	secret	secret	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
21	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	24	nsubj	_	_
22	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	disgrace	disgrace	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
25	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | prince |  | prince |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to himself=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **forbid** *in a quote* | infinitive | God |  |  |  |  |  | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Causer |
| 3 | **take** *in a quote* | should · passive |  | the veil |  | vain |  | from my secret | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: subject=Theme from secret=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **disgrace** *in a quote* | would | that | prince |  |  |  | indeed *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus i=Experiencer |

<!-- .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 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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