---
title: “I may not tell you why; how dare I confide my woes to anyone? for I… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “I may not tell you why; how dare I confide my woes to anyone? for I swore not to by heaven, otherwise I should have lost my life.” Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Goose-girl, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Goose-girl, sentence 76

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“I may not tell you why; how dare I confide my woes to anyone? for I swore not to by heaven, otherwise I should have lost my life.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** not tell, confide, swear, lose · **To what, where:** you, woes, anyone, heaven, life · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Goose-girl. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I), 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:pg503:37:76
# text = “I may not tell you why; how dare I confide my woes to anyone? for I swore not to by heaven, otherwise I should have lost my life.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	iobj	_	_
7	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
10	dare	dare	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	confide	confide	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
13	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	woes	woe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	anyone	anyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
18	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	swore	swear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	fixed	_	_
23	by	by	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	heaven	heaven	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
26	otherwise	otherwise	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
27	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
28	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	aux	_	_
30	lost	lose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	20	conj	_	_
31	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | may | I |  | you |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent you=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **confide** *speech: other* *in a quote* | present | I | my woes | anyone |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent woe=Topic to anyone=Recipient |
| 3 | **swear** *in a quote* | past | I | heaven |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent heaven=Eventuality |
| 4 | **lose** *in a quote* | should · perfect | I | my life |  |  |  | otherwise *property* | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=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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