---
title: I could not eat any food,” he answered every time, and at each answe… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: I could not eat any food,” he answered every time, and at each answer his voice grew fainter and fainter, till they thought he would die from weakness before their eyes. Who acts: I, husband, voice, corner. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 8, with its d
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 8, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I could not eat any food,” he answered every time, and at each answer his voice grew fainter and fainter, till they thought he would die from weakness before their eyes.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, husband, voice, corner · **What happens:** not eat, answer, grow, think, die · **To what, where:** food, answer, weakness · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, husband, voice, corner), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3282:8:18
# text = I could not eat any food,” he answered every time, and at each answer his voice grew fainter and fainter, till they thought he would die from weakness before their eyes.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	6	det	_	_
6	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
11	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	12	det	_	_
12	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	17	det	_	_
17	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
21	fainter	faint	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	20	xcomp	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	fainter	faint	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	ccomp	_	_
31	from	from	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	weakness	weakness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
33	before	before	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **eat** | could | I | any food |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | husband |  |  |  | time |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **grow** *in a quote* | past | husband's voice |  |  | each answer |  | faint *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at answer=Location |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* *in a quote* | past | corner |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **die** *in a quote* | would | husband |  |  | weakness | before corner's eyes |  | vn die-42.4-1 «NP V PP.cause»: agent=Patient from weakness=Causer |

<!-- .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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