---
title: Such a thing must never be; what would people say? — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Such a thing must never be; what would people say? Who acts: thing. 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.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 8, sentence 18

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Such a thing must never be; what would people say?

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**Who acts:** thing · **What happens:** not be

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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 (thing), 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:pg3454:8:18
# text = Such a thing must never be; what would people say?
1	Such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	3	det:predet	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
4	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
5	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
8	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	11	obj	_	_
9	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
11	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | would | such thing |  |  |  |  | say *property* | tree rules |

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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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