---
title: “You can’t play in the rain, and if you did, you would only lose it… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “You can’t play in the rain, and if you did, you would only lose it in the bushes,” said the cat. Who acts: You, cat. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 29, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 29, sentence 6

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“You can’t play in the rain, and if you did, you would only lose it in the bushes,” said the cat.

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**Who acts:** You, cat · **What happens:** not play, do, lose, say · **To what, where:** rain, bushes · **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 29. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (You, cat), 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:pg3282:29:6
# text = “You can’t play in the rain, and if you did, you would only lose it in the bushes,” said the cat.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	ccomp	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	rain	rain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
11	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	only	only	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	lose	lose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	bushes	bush	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
25	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **play** *in a quote* | can | You |  |  | the rain |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **do** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | past | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **lose** *in a quote* | would | you | rain |  | the bushes |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the cat |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |

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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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