---
title: Then the beautiful lady also spoke, and said that “it was a foolish… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the beautiful lady also spoke, and said that “it was a foolish oath and a hasty, but it might be kept if a brave man had sworn it.” Who acts: beautiful lady, Head, brave man. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Terrible Head, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Terrible Head, sentence 34

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then the beautiful lady also spoke, and said that “it was a foolish oath and a hasty, but it might be kept if a brave man had sworn it.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** beautiful lady, Head, brave man · **What happens:** speak, say, be, keep, swear · **To what, where:** foolish oath, Head · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Terrible Head. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (beautiful lady, Head, brave man), 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:pg503:27:34
# text = Then the beautiful lady also spoke, and said that “it was a foolish oath and a hasty, but it might be kept if a brave man had sworn it.”
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	also	also	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
10	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	foolish	foolish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	oath	oath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	ccomp	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	hasty	hasty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	aux:pass	_	_
25	kept	keep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	parataxis	_	_
26	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	brave	brave	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
30	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	sworn	swear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	25	advcl	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | the beautiful lady |  |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the beautiful lady *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | past | Head | a foolish oath |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** *in a quote* |  | Head *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **keep** *in a quote* | might · passive |  | Head |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 6 | **swear** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | past · perfect | a brave man | Head |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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