---
title: ‘One thing shalt thou promise me, and that is, to do what thy father… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘One thing shalt thou promise me, and that is, to do what thy father bids thee, but not what thy mother bids thee,’ and this he promised. Who acts: One thing, that, father, mother. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Princesses of Whiteland, with its dependency tree and the 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/26/36/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Red Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/) / [The Three Princesses of Whiteland](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/26/) / 36

# The Red Fairy Book, The Three Princesses of Whiteland, sentence 36

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘One thing shalt thou promise me, and that is, to do what thy father bids thee, but not what thy mother bids thee,’ and this he promised.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** One thing, that, father, mother, this · **What happens:** promise, be, bid · **To what, where:** me, thee

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Princesses of Whiteland. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (One thing, that, father, mother), 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:pg540:26:36
# text = ‘One thing shalt thou promise me, and that is, to do what thy father bids thee, but not what thy mother bids thee,’ and this he promised.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	shalt	shall	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	6	nsubj	_	_
6	promise	promise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
10	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	14	nsubj:outer	_	_
11	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
15	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	18	obj	_	_
16	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	bids	bid	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
19	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
23	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	6	conj	_	_
24	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	bids	bid	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	acl:relcl	_	_
27	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
31	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	33	nsubj	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	promised	promise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **promise** *speech: promise* | shall | One thing |  | me |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent i=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | present | that |  |  |  |  | do *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **bid** | present | thy father | thee |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **bid** | present | thy mother | thee |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past | this |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/26/35/)
- next →: [sentence 37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/26/37/)
- ↑ back to [The Three Princesses of Whiteland](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/26/)