---
title: ‘Sister,’ said the youngest, ‘I cannot think how you can tempt us to… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Sister,’ said the youngest, ‘I cannot think how you can tempt us to break our father’s command. Who acts: Sister, I, you, father. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Pig, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Enchanted Pig, sentence 21

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‘Sister,’ said the youngest, ‘I cannot think how you can tempt us to break our father’s command.

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**Who acts:** Sister, I, you, father · **What happens:** say, not think, tempt, break, command · **To what, where:** us, command · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Pig. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Sister, I, you, father), 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:pg540:12:21
# text = ‘Sister,’ said the youngest, ‘I cannot think how you can tempt us to break our father’s command.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
14	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	advmod	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	tempt	tempt	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
18	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	_
21	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’s	's	PART	POS	_	22	case	_	_
24	command	command	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Sister |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **think** *speech: other* | can | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **tempt** | can | you |  | us |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent we=Recipient |
| 4 | **break** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | our father's command |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer command=Patient |
| 5 | **command** |  | our father |  |  |  |  |  | nom command «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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