---
title: ‘Be not so downcast,’ replied the otter; ‘before noon to-morrow thou… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Be not so downcast,’ replied the otter; ‘before noon to-morrow thou shalt behold thy wife. Who acts: downcast, thou. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 9, sentence 90

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‘Be not so downcast,’ replied the otter; ‘before noon to-morrow thou shalt behold thy wife.

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**Who acts:** downcast, thou · **What happens:** not be, reply, behold · **To what, where:** otter, wife

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (downcast, thou), 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:pg3454:9:90
# text = ‘Be not so downcast,’ replied the otter; ‘before noon to-morrow thou shalt behold thy wife.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	cop	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
4	so	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	downcast	downcast	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	otter	otter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
12	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	before	before	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	noon	noon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	morrow	morrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
18	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	20	nsubj	_	_
19	shalt	shall	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	behold	behold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
21	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | downcast *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | downcast | the otter |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent otter=Topic |
| 3 | **behold** | shall | thou | thy wife |  |  | noon |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer wife=Stimulus |

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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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