---
title: ‘I would rather die than not know what is in that tureen,’ she burst… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I would rather die than not know what is in that tureen,’ she burst forth so violently that the husband was quite startled. Who acts: I, wife. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 7, sentence 79

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‘I would rather die than not know what is in that tureen,’ she burst forth so violently that the husband was quite startled.

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**Who acts:** I, wife · **What happens:** die, not know, be, burst, startle · **To what, where:** tureen, husband · **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 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, 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:pg3454:7:79
# text = ‘I would rather die than not know what is in that tureen,’ she burst forth so violently that the husband was quite startled.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	ccomp	_	_
6	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
9	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	13	nsubj	_	_
10	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	13	det	_	_
13	tureen	tureen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	burst	burst	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	forth	forth	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
19	so	so	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	violently	violently	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux:pass	_	_
25	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	startled	startle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **die** | would | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 2 | **not** **know** | infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **is** | present |  |  |  | that tureen |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **burst** | past | wife |  |  |  |  | forth, violently *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **startle** | past · passive |  | the husband |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |

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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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