---
title: She promised her godmother she would not fail of leaving the ball be… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: She promised her godmother she would not fail of leaving the ball before midnight; and then away she drives, scarce able to contain herself for joy. Who acts: Cinderella. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper, sentence 48

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She promised her godmother she would not fail of leaving the ball before midnight; and then away she drives, scarce able to contain herself for joy.

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**Who acts:** Cinderella · **What happens:** promise, not fail, leave, drive, contain · **To what, where:** godmother, ball, Cinderella · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Cinderella), 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:pg503:11:48
# text = She promised her godmother she would not fail of leaving the ball before midnight; and then away she drives, scarce able to contain herself for joy.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	promised	promise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	godmother	godmother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	fail	fail	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
9	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
10	leaving	leave	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	ball	ball	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	before	before	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	midnight	midnight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	20	advmod	_	_
18	away	away	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	drives	drive	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	scarce	scarce	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	ccomp	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	contain	contain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
26	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	25	obj	_	_
27	for	for	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	joy	joy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past | Cinderella | Cinderella's godmother |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V NP that S»: agent=Agent godmother=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **fail** | would | Cinderella |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **leave** | gerund | Cinderella *not said here* | the ball |  |  | midnight |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ball=Theme |
| 4 | **drive** | present | Cinderella |  |  |  | then |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **contain** | to-infinitive | Cinderella *not said here* | Cinderella |  |  |  | for joy | vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot herself=Theme |

<!-- .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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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