--- title: “As I never in all my life could keep a secret, I could not help tel… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: “As I never in all my life could keep a secret, I could not help telling this strange tale to my neighbors, and one day a beautiful lady came here, and I told it to her also. Who acts: Queen, beautiful lady. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Felicia and the Pot of Pinks, with its d --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/22/69/) [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 Blue Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/) / [Felicia and the Pot of Pinks](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/22/) / 69 # The Blue Fairy Book, Felicia and the Pot of Pinks, sentence 69 “As I never in all my life could keep a secret, I could not help telling this strange tale to my neighbors, and one day a beautiful lady came here, and I told it to her also. **Who acts:** Queen, beautiful lady · **What happens:** not keep, not help, tell, come · **To what, where:** secret, life, strange tale, neighbors, tale, Queen · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (Queen, beautiful lady), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg503:22:69 # text = “As I never in all my life could keep a secret, I could not help telling this strange tale to my neighbors, and one day a beautiful lady came here, and I told it to her also. 1 “ " PUNCT `` _ 17 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 2 As as SCONJ IN _ 10 mark _ _ 3 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 10 nsubj _ _ 4 never never ADV RB PronType=Neg 10 advmod _ _ 5 in in ADP IN _ 8 case _ _ 6 all all DET PDT PronType=Tot 8 det:predet _ _ 7 my my PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 8 nmod:poss _ _ 8 life life NOUN NN Number=Sing 10 obl _ _ 9 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 10 aux _ _ 10 keep keep VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 17 advcl _ _ 11 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 12 det _ _ 12 secret secret NOUN NN Number=Sing 10 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 13 , , PUNCT , _ 10 punct _ _ 14 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 17 nsubj _ _ 15 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 17 aux _ _ 16 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 17 advmod _ _ 17 help help VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 0 root _ _ 18 telling tell VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 17 xcomp _ _ 19 this this DET DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 21 det _ _ 20 strange strange ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 21 amod _ _ 21 tale tale NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 obj _ _ 22 to to ADP IN _ 24 case _ _ 23 my my PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 24 nmod:poss _ _ 24 neighbors neighbor NOUN NNS Number=Plur 18 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 25 , , PUNCT , _ 32 punct _ _ 26 and and CCONJ CC _ 32 cc _ _ 27 one one NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 28 nummod _ _ 28 day day NOUN NN Number=Sing 32 obl:unmarked _ _ 29 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 31 det _ _ 30 beautiful beautiful ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 31 amod _ _ 31 lady lady NOUN NN Number=Sing 32 nsubj _ _ 32 came come VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 17 parataxis _ _ 33 here here ADV RB PronType=Dem 32 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 34 , , PUNCT , _ 37 punct _ _ 35 and and CCONJ CC _ 37 cc _ _ 36 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 37 nsubj _ _ 37 told tell VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 32 conj _ _ 38 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 37 obj _ _ 39 to to ADP IN _ 40 case _ _ 40 her she PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 37 obl _ _ 41 also also ADV RB _ 37 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 42 . . PUNCT . _ 17 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **not** **keep** *in a quote* | could | Queen | a secret | | my life | | | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent secret=Theme in life=Location | | 2 | **not** **help** *in a quote* | could | Queen | | | | | | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | | 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* *not said to happen, in a quote* | gerund | Queen *not said here* | this strange tale | my neighbors | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent tale=Topic to neighbor=Recipient | | 4 | **come** *in a quote* | past | a beautiful lady | | | here | day | | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | Queen | tale | Queen | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Topic to she=Recipient | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 68](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/22/68/) - next →: [sentence 70](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/22/70/) - ↑ back to [Felicia and the Pot of Pinks](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/22/)