---
title: ‘“I mustn’t stay,” answered the hare; “but I promised the lion to be… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘“I mustn’t stay,” answered the hare; “but I promised the lion to beg you to pay him a visit, as he is not well enough to call on you.” Who acts: hare, lion. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/6/44/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 6, sentence 44

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘“I mustn’t stay,” answered the hare; “but I promised the lion to beg you to pay him a visit, as he is not well enough to call on you.”

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**Who acts:** hare, lion · **What happens:** not stay, answer, promise, beg, pay, not be · **To what, where:** lion, you · **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 (hare, lion), 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:pg3454:6:44
# text = ‘“I mustn’t stay,” answered the hare; “but I promised the lion to beg you to pay him a visit, as he is not well enough to call on you.”
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	stay	stay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
9	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	hare	hare	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	promised	promise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	lion	lion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	beg	beg	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	ccomp	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	pay	pay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	advcl	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	visit	visit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
28	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
30	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
31	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	33	advmod	_	_
32	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	33	advmod	_	_
33	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	advcl	_	_
36	on	on	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **stay** *in a quote* | must | the hare *= hare* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the hare |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **promise** *speech: promise* *in a quote* | past | the hare *= hare* |  | the lion |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V NP that S»: agent=Agent lion=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **beg** *speech: request* *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  | you |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |
| 5 | **pay** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  | lion |  |  |  | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient visit=Asset |
| 6 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | present | lion |  |  |  |  | enough, well *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **call** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | lion *not said here* |  |  |  |  | on you | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «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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