---
title: “Sweetest and fairest of damsels,” cried the gnome, “do not be angry… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Sweetest and fairest of damsels,” cried the gnome, “do not be angry; everything that is in my power I will do—but do not ask the impossible. Who acts: Sweetest. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 31, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 31, sentence 62

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“Sweetest and fairest of damsels,” cried the gnome, “do not be angry; everything that is in my power I will do—but do not ask the impossible.

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**Who acts:** Sweetest · **What happens:** cry, not be, be, do, not ask · **To what, where:** gnome, power, impossible · **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 31. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Sweetest), 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:pg3282:31:62
# text = “Sweetest and fairest of damsels,” cried the gnome, “do not be angry; everything that is in my power I will do—but do not ask the impossible.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Sweetest	sweet	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	9	nsubj	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	fairest	fair	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	2	conj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	damsels	damsel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
9	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	gnome	gnome	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	do	do	AUX	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
16	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	cop	_	_
17	angry	angry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
19	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	17	conj	_	_
20	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
21	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	acl:relcl	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
30	do	do	AUX	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
31	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	32	advmod	_	_
32	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | Sweetest | the gnome |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | infinitive · do-support |  |  |  |  |  | angry *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  | my power |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **do** *in a quote* | future | Sweetest *= sweet* | my power *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent power=Eventuality |
| 5 | **not** **ask** *speech: ask* *in a quote* | infinitive · do-support | Sweetest *not said here* | the impossible |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent impossible=Recipient |

<!-- .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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