---
title: Certain it was she could not help it, for Maurice never stopped play… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Certain it was she could not help it, for Maurice never stopped playing that wonderful tune of his. Who acts: Certain, Maurice. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 18, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/18/68/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 18, sentence 68

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Certain it was she could not help it, for Maurice never stopped playing that wonderful tune of his.

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**Who acts:** Certain, Maurice · **What happens:** not be, not stop, play · **To what, where:** wonderful tune

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Certain, Maurice), 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:pg3454:18:68
# text = Certain it was she could not help it, for Maurice never stopped playing that wonderful tune of his.
1	Certain	certain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
4	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
11	Maurice	Maurice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
12	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
14	playing	play	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	xcomp	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	wonderful	wonderful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	tune	tune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | could · past | Certain |  |  |  |  | help *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **stop** | past | Maurice |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **play** | gerund | Maurice *not said here* | wonderful tune |  |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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