---
title: “I promised your father,” said she sternly, “to give you good advice… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “I promised your father,” said she sternly, “to give you good advice, and to punish you if you refused to follow it. Who acts: clap, you. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Darling, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Prince Darling, sentence 85

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“I promised your father,” said she sternly, “to give you good advice, and to punish you if you refused to follow it.

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**Who acts:** clap, you · **What happens:** promise, say, give, punish, refuse, not follow · **To what, where:** father, good advice, you, advice · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Darling. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (clap, 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:pg503:39:85
# text = “I promised your father,” said she sternly, “to give you good advice, and to punish you if you refused to follow it.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	promised	promise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
9	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
10	sternly	sternly	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	iobj	_	_
16	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	advice	advice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	punish	punish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
22	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
24	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	refused	refuse	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	advcl	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	follow	follow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **promise** *speech: promise* *in a quote* | past | clap |  | your father |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent father=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | clap |  |  |  |  | sternly *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **give** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  | good advice | you |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent you=Recipient advice=Theme |
| 4 | **punish** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  | you |  |  |  |  | vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Patient |
| 5 | **refuse** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | past | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 6 | **not** **follow** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | advice |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

<!-- .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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