---
title: ‘My father gave me a gold ring,’ said she, ‘and always, ere the dawn… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘My father gave me a gold ring,’ said she, ‘and always, ere the dawning, it grows cold on my finger.’ Who acts: father, Queen, dawning. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Sigurd, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Story of Sigurd, sentence 20

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‘My father gave me a gold ring,’ said she, ‘and always, ere the dawning, it grows cold on my finger.’

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**Who acts:** father, Queen, dawning · **What happens:** give, say, ‘, ere, grow · **To what, where:** gold ring, me, dawning, finger · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Sigurd. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, Queen, dawning), 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:pg540:51:20
# text = ‘My father gave me a gold ring,’ said she, ‘and always, ere the dawning, it grows cold on my finger.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
5	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	ring	ring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	‘	‘	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
18	ere	ere	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	dawning	dawning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	grows	grow	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
24	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	xcomp	_	_
25	on	on	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	23	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past | My father | a gold ring | me |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient ring=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **‘** |  | Queen |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **ere** | infinitive | Queen *not said here* | the dawning |  |  |  | always *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **grow** | present | dawning |  |  | my finger |  | cold *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on finger=Location |

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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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