---
title: ‘Dear Walter, remember that it is only cowards who boast; a really b… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Dear Walter, remember that it is only cowards who boast; a really brave man never talks of his bravery.’ Who acts: Dear Walter, bear, cowards, brave man. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/8/100/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/8/) / 100

# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 8, sentence 100

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Dear Walter, remember that it is only cowards who boast; a really brave man never talks of his bravery.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Dear Walter, bear, cowards, brave man · **What happens:** remember, be, boast, not talk · **To what, where:** cowards

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Dear Walter, bear, cowards, brave man), 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:pg3454:8:100
# text = ‘Dear Walter, remember that it is only cowards who boast; a really brave man never talks of his bravery.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	Walter	Walter	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	remember	remember	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
8	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
9	only	only	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	cowards	coward	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
11	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
12	boast	boast	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
15	really	really	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	brave	brave	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	talks	talk	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	bravery	bravery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **remember** | infinitive | Dear Walter |  |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | present | bear | cowards |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **boast** *speech: other* | present | cowards |  |  |  |  |  | vn complain-37.8 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **not** **talk** | present | a brave man |  |  |  |  | of man's bravery | vn talk-37.5 «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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 99](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/8/99/)
- next →: [sentence 101](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/8/101/)
- ↑ back to [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/8/)