---
title: ‘No,’ said the Moon, ‘that I can’t, for when I shone there, there wa… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘No,’ said the Moon, ‘that I can’t, for when I shone there, there was a cloud before me.’ Who acts: Moon, I, cloud. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Soria Moria Castle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Soria Moria Castle, sentence 144

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‘No,’ said the Moon, ‘that I can’t, for when I shone there, there was a cloud before me.’

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**Who acts:** Moon, I, cloud · **What happens:** say, shine, be · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Soria Moria Castle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Moon, I, cloud), 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:pg540:6:144
# text = ‘No,’ said the Moon, ‘that I can’t, for when I shone there, there was a cloud before me.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Moon	Moon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	advmod	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	shone	shine	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
19	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	22	expl	_	_
22	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	cloud	cloud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
25	before	before	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Moon |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **shine** | past | I |  |  | there |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location |
| 3 | **be** | past | a cloud |  |  | there | before me |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme before i=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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