---
title: His mother was frightened at the idea, but the boy told her that she… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: His mother was frightened at the idea, but the boy told her that she need not be alarmed; all would be well. Who acts: boy, all. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 24, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/24/30/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 24, sentence 30

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
His mother was frightened at the idea, but the boy told her that she need not be alarmed; all would be well.

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**Who acts:** boy, all · **What happens:** frighten, tell, not alarm, be · **To what, where:** mother, idea, market · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 24. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, all), 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:pg5615:24:30
# text = His mother was frightened at the idea, but the boy told her that she need not be alarmed; all would be well.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	idea	idea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
13	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	iobj	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
15	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
16	need	need	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	alarmed	alarm	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	24	nsubj	_	_
22	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	cop	_	_
24	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **frighten** | past · passive |  | boy's mother |  | the idea |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the boy |  | market |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **alarm** | present · passive |  | market |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is** | would | all |  |  |  |  | well *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 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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