---
title: “Ah! shepherdess,” said the hen, “don’t kill me; I am rather a gossi… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Ah! shepherdess,” said the hen, “don’t kill me; I am rather a gossip, and I can tell you some surprising things that you will like to hear. Who acts: shepherdess, hen, you. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Felicia and the Pot of Pinks, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Felicia and the Pot of Pinks, sentence 63

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Ah! shepherdess,” said the hen, “don’t kill me; I am rather a gossip, and I can tell you some surprising things that you will like to hear.

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**Who acts:** shepherdess, hen, you · **What happens:** say, not kill, be, tell, like, hear · **To what, where:** shepherdess, gossip, surprising things, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Felicia and the Pot of Pinks. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (shepherdess, hen, you), 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:pg503:22:63
# text = “Ah! shepherdess,” said the hen, “don’t kill me; I am rather a gossip, and I can tell you some surprising things that you will like to hear.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Ah	ah	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
4	shepherdess	shepherdess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	hen	hen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	do	do	AUX	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	acl:relcl	_	_
15	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
18	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
19	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	gossip	gossip	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
27	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	26	iobj	_	_
28	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	30	det	_	_
29	surprising	surprising	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	_
31	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	34	obj	_	_
32	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
33	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	acl:relcl	_	_
35	to	to	PART	TO	_	36	mark	_	_
36	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | shepherdess |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **kill** *in a quote* | infinitive · do-support | the hen *not said here* | shepherdess |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | shepherdess | a gossip |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | can | shepherdess | some surprising things | you |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent you=Recipient thing=Topic |
| 5 | **like** *in a quote* | future | you | some surprising things |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **hear** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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