---
title: “Why did I not give her a kiss?” he said to himself; “I shall never… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Why did I not give her a kiss?” he said to himself; “I shall never kiss any woman so beautiful.” Who acts: boy. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 23, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 23, sentence 34

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“Why did I not give her a kiss?” he said to himself; “I shall never kiss any woman so beautiful.”

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**Who acts:** boy · **What happens:** not give, say, not kiss · **To what, where:** kiss, business, boy, woman · **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 23. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy), 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:pg3282:23:34
# text = “Why did I not give her a kiss?” he said to himself; “I shall never kiss any woman so beautiful.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
3	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	iobj	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	kiss	kiss	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	kiss	kiss	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
22	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	23	det	_	_
23	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	so	so	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **give** *in a quote* | past · do-support | boy | a kiss | business |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | boy |  | boy |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to himself=Recipient |
| 3 | **not** **kiss** *in a quote* | shall | boy | any woman |  |  |  | beautiful *property* | vn marry-36.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent woman=Co-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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