---
title: But the bear began to speak, and said: “Don’t be afraid: I won’t hur… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the bear began to speak, and said: “Don’t be afraid: I won’t hurt you. Who acts: bear, I. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Snow-white and Rose-red, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Snow-white and Rose-red, sentence 20

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But the bear began to speak, and said: “Don’t be afraid: I won’t hurt you.

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**Who acts:** bear, I · **What happens:** begin, speak, say, not be, not hurt · **To what, where:** you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Snow-white and Rose-red. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bear, I), 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:pg503:36:20
# text = But the bear began to speak, and said: “Don’t be afraid: I won’t hurt you.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	bear	bear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	Do	do	AUX	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
14	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	cop	_	_
15	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	wo	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
20	hurt	hurt	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | the bear |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | the bear *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | infinitive · do-support |  |  |  |  |  | afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **hurt** *in a quote* | future | I | you |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer you=Patient |

<!-- .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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