---
title: We cannot all be young, alas! and pretty, and strong; but nothing pr… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: We cannot all be young, alas! and pretty, and strong; but nothing prevents us from being kind, and no kind man, woman, or beast or bird, ever comes to anything but good in these oldest fables of the world. Who acts: We, nothing. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 1, sentence 22

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
We cannot all be young, alas! and pretty, and strong; but nothing prevents us from being kind, and no kind man, woman, or beast or bird, ever comes to anything but good in these oldest fables of the world.

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**Who acts:** We, nothing · **What happens:** not be, be, prevent, come · **To what, where:** us, anything

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (We, nothing), 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:pg5615:1:22
# text = We cannot all be young, alas! and pretty, and strong; but nothing prevents us from being kind, and no kind man, woman, or beast or bird, ever comes to anything but good in these oldest fables of the world.
1	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
4	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	6	nsubj	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
6	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	alas	ala	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
11	pretty	pretty	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	18	nsubj	_	_
18	prevents	prevent	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
19	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	from	from	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	cop	_	_
22	kind	kind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	27	det	_	_
26	kind	kind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
29	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	beast	beast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	parataxis	_	_
33	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
36	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	37	advmod	_	_
37	comes	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
38	to	to	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	37	obl	_	_
40	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
41	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	conj	_	_
42	in	in	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
43	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	45	det	_	_
44	oldest	old	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	45	amod	_	_
45	fables	fable	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	41	obl	_	_
46	of	of	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | can | We |  |  |  |  | young *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | We *not said here* |  |  |  |  | pretty *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **prevent** | present | nothing | us |  |  |  |  | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer we=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | kind *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **come** | present | nothing *not said here* |  |  | anything | ever |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to anything=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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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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