---
title: I have lost the best of mothers, and I don’t know what will become o… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: I have lost the best of mothers, and I don’t know what will become of me,’ and he hid his face in his hands and sobbed again. Who acts: I, skin. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 12, sentence 49

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I have lost the best of mothers, and I don’t know what will become of me,’ and he hid his face in his hands and sobbed again.

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**Who acts:** I, skin · **What happens:** lose, not know, become, hide, sob · **To what, where:** best, face, hands · **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 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, skin), 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:pg3454:12:49
# text = I have lost the best of mothers, and I don’t know what will become of me,’ and he hid his face in his hands and sobbed again.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	lost	lose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	mothers	mother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
14	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	16	nsubj	_	_
15	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	hid	hide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	sobbed	sob	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	conj	_	_
31	again	again	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lose** | present · perfect | I | the best of mothers |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent good=Eventuality |
| 2 | **not** **know** | present · do-support | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **become** | future |  |  |  |  |  | of me | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **hide** | past | skin | skin's face |  | skin's hands |  |  | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent face=Patient in hand=Location |
| 5 | **sob** | participle | skin *not said here* |  |  |  | again |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=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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