---
title: He dared not answer, but only squeezed the Princess’s hand until he… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He dared not answer, but only squeezed the Princess’s hand until he really hurt her little finger, but she did not cry out. Who acts: Ambassador, Princess. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess Mayblossom, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Princess Mayblossom, part 2, sentence 7

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He dared not answer, but only squeezed the Princess’s hand until he really hurt her little finger, but she did not cry out.

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**Who acts:** Ambassador, Princess · **What happens:** not dare, not answer, squeeze, hurt, not cry out · **To what, where:** hand, little finger

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess Mayblossom, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Ambassador, Princess), 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:pg540:4:7
# text = He dared not answer, but only squeezed the Princess’s hand until he really hurt her little finger, but she did not cry out.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	dared	dare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	2	advmod	_	_
4	answer	answer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	only	only	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	squeezed	squeeze	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’s	's	PART	POS	_	10	case	_	_
12	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
13	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	really	really	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	hurt	hurt	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
17	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
18	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
22	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	cry	cry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
26	out	out	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **dare** | past | Ambassador |  |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **answer** *speech: assert* | infinitive | Ambassador *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **squeeze** | past | Ambassador *not said here* | the Princess's hand |  |  |  |  | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hand=Theme |
| 4 | **hurt** | past | Ambassador | Princess's little finger |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer finger=Patient |
| 5 | **not** **cry out** *speech: express* | past · do-support | Princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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