---
title: I never knew a donkey could kick like that, though I took care she s… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: I never knew a donkey could kick like that, though I took care she should carry away the marks of my claws.” Who acts: I, donkey. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 6, sentence 26

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I never knew a donkey could kick like that, though I took care she should carry away the marks of my claws.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, donkey · **What happens:** not know, kick, take, carry away, mark · **To what, where:** care, marks, claws · **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 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, donkey), 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:pg3454:6:26
# text = I never knew a donkey could kick like that, though I took care she should carry away the marks of my claws.”
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	3	advmod	_	_
3	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	donkey	donkey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	kick	kick	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
8	like	like	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
14	care	care	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
15	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
18	away	away	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	marks	mark	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	claws	claw	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **kick** | could | a donkey |  |  |  |  | like that | vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **take** | past | I | care |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP to be ADJ»: agent=Agent care=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 4 | **carry away** | should | donkey | the marks of my claws |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mark=Theme |
| 5 | **mark** |  |  | my claws |  |  |  |  | nom mark «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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