---
title: ‘Well, I won’t say “No,”’ replied Bellah, with a laugh, ‘but you mus… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Well, I won’t say “No,”’ replied Bellah, with a laugh, ‘but you must promise first to let me catch one of those lovely fish in your net.’ Who acts: I, Bellah, you, me. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 34, 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/pg3454/34/95/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 34, sentence 95

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Well, I won’t say “No,”’ replied Bellah, with a laugh, ‘but you must promise first to let me catch one of those lovely fish in your net.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, Bellah, you, me · **What happens:** not say, reply, promise, let, catch · **To what, where:** me, one · **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 34. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, Bellah, you, me), 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:pg3454:34:95
# text = ‘Well, I won’t say “No,”’ replied Bellah, with a laugh, ‘but you must promise first to let me catch one of those lovely fish in your net.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	wo	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
13	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	Bellah	Bellah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	laugh	laugh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	promise	promise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	parataxis	_	_
25	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	24	advmod	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	ccomp	_	_
28	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	_
30	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	29	obj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	34	det	_	_
33	lovely	lovely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	fish	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nmod	_	_
35	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
37	net	net	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* | future | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent no=Topic |
| 2 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | Bellah |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **promise** *speech: promise* | must | you |  |  |  |  | first *property* | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **let** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  | me |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **catch** | infinitive | me *not said here* | one of that lovely fish in your net |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Theme |

<!-- .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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