---
title: ‘My dear Zizi,’ said Tubby’s son, ‘we cannot present ourselves befor… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘My dear Zizi,’ said Tubby’s son, ‘we cannot present ourselves before my father like two common people who have come back from a walk. Who acts: dear Zizi, we, two common people. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Canary, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Enchanted Canary, sentence 156

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‘My dear Zizi,’ said Tubby’s son, ‘we cannot present ourselves before my father like two common people who have come back from a walk.

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**Who acts:** dear Zizi, we, two common people · **What happens:** say, not present, come back · **To what, where:** son, ourselves, walk · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Canary. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dear Zizi, we, two common people), 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:pg540:40:156
# text = ‘My dear Zizi,’ said Tubby’s son, ‘we cannot present ourselves before my father like two common people who have come back from a walk.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
3	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	Zizi	Zizi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	Tubby	Tubby	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’s	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	present	present	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
17	ourselves	ourselve	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
18	before	before	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
21	like	like	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	24	nummod	_	_
23	common	common	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nmod	_	_
25	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	27	nsubj	_	_
26	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	24	acl:relcl	_	_
28	back	back	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
29	from	from	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	walk	walk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | My dear Zizi | Tubby's son |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **present** | can | we | ourselves |  |  | before my father like two common people |  | vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ourselve=Theme |
| 3 | **come back** | present · perfect | two common people |  |  | a walk |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from walk=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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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