---
title: One nymph who, like the rest, could not keep off the horrid topic of… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: One nymph who, like the rest, could not keep off the horrid topic of my occupation, said ‘You never write anything but fairy books, do you?’ Who acts: One nymph, You, my. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/1/14/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1, sentence 14

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One nymph who, like the rest, could not keep off the horrid topic of my occupation, said ‘You never write anything but fairy books, do you?’

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**Who acts:** One nymph, You, my · **What happens:** not keep off, say, not write, do, occupy · **To what, where:** horrid topic, anything, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (One nymph, You, my), 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:pg3454:1:14
# text = One nymph who, like the rest, could not keep off the horrid topic of my occupation, said ‘You never write anything but fairy books, do you?’
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	nymph	nymph	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
3	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	like	like	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	rest	rest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	acl:relcl	_	_
12	off	off	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	horrid	horrid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	topic	topic	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	occupation	occupation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
20	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
21	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	write	write	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	ccomp	_	_
25	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	24	obj	_	_
26	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	fairy	fairy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	_
28	books	book	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
30	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	_
31	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **keep off** | could | One nymph | the horrid topic of my occupation |  |  |  | like the rest | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent topic=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | One nymph |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **write** | present | You | anything |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Theme |
| 4 | **do** | present | You *not said here* | you |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Eventuality |
| 5 | **occupy** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom occupation «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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