---
title: “No,” replied the boy, “at least I have been obliged to sometimes, b… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “No,” replied the boy, “at least I have been obliged to sometimes, but never if there was any food to be had.” Who acts: boy, food. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 6, sentence 100

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“No,” replied the boy, “at least I have been obliged to sometimes, but never if there was any food to be had.”

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**Who acts:** boy, food · **What happens:** reply, oblige, not be, have · **To what, where:** boy, least · **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 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, food), 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:pg3282:6:100
# text = “No,” replied the boy, “at least I have been obliged to sometimes, but never if there was any food to be had.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	least	least	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	15	obl	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	15	aux:pass	_	_
15	obliged	oblige	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
20	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
21	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	23	expl	_	_
23	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	advcl	_	_
24	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	25	det	_	_
25	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
27	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	aux:pass	_	_
28	had	have	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | the boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **oblige** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive |  | the boy *= boy* |  | least |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 3 | **not** **be** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | past | any food |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **have** *in a quote* | to-infinitive · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP» |

<!-- .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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