---
title: The younger sister could not imagine why she was to keep off, and th… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The younger sister could not imagine why she was to keep off, and thought to herself: ‘If they are both there, why should not I be there too?’ Who acts: younger sister, sister, daughters, I. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Goose, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Golden Goose, sentence 31

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The younger sister could not imagine why she was to keep off, and thought to herself: ‘If they are both there, why should not I be there too?’

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**Who acts:** younger sister, sister, daughters, I · **What happens:** not imagine, be, think, not be · **To what, where:** sister

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Goose. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (younger sister, sister, daughters, I), 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:pg540:48:31
# text = The younger sister could not imagine why she was to keep off, and thought to herself: ‘If they are both there, why should not I be there too?’
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	younger	young	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	amod	_	_
3	sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	imagine	imagine	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
8	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
12	off	off	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	thought	think	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	conj	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
19	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	both	both	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
26	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	31	advmod	_	_
27	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
28	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	31	advmod	_	_
29	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	cop	_	_
31	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	24	parataxis	_	_
32	too	too	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **imagine** | could | the younger sister |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | sister |  |  |  |  | keep *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | participle | the younger sister *not said here* |  | sister |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | daughters *= daughter* |  |  |  |  | both, there *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **is** | should | I |  |  |  |  | there *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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