---
title: ‘Did I not tell thee that there is no luck in Sunday fishing?’ said… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Did I not tell thee that there is no luck in Sunday fishing?’ said Matte sulkily; and his wife was so frightened that she never even once thought of Ahti’s cows. Who acts: I, luck, wife. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23, with its dependency tree and
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23, sentence 129

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Did I not tell thee that there is no luck in Sunday fishing?’ said Matte sulkily; and his wife was so frightened that she never even once thought of Ahti’s cows.

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**Who acts:** I, luck, wife · **What happens:** do, not tell, be, say, not think · **To what, where:** thee · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, luck, wife), 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:pg3454:23:129
# text = ‘Did I not tell thee that there is no luck in Sunday fishing?’ said Matte sulkily; and his wife was so frightened that she never even once thought of Ahti’s cows.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	ccomp	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	tell	tell	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
6	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	5	iobj	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	9	expl	_	_
9	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
10	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	11	det	_	_
11	luck	luck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	Sunday	Sunday	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	fishing	fishing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
17	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	Matte	matte	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	xcomp	_	_
19	sulkily	sulkily	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
25	so	so	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	frightened	frightened	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	parataxis	_	_
27	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
28	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
29	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	32	advmod	_	_
30	even	even	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	32	advmod	_	_
32	thought	think	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	advcl	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	Ahti	Ahti	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	36	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	’s	's	PART	POS	_	34	case	_	_
36	cows	cow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | present | I |  | thee |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent thou=Recipient |
| 3 | **be** | present | no luck in Sunday fishing |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  | matte *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **is** | past | luck's wife |  |  |  |  | frightened *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **not** **think** *speech: other* | participle | wife |  |  |  |  | of Ahti's cows; once *property* | vn focus-87.1-1 «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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