---
title: ‘We can’t do that,’ shouted the princes; ‘he doesn’t belong to us so… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘We can’t do that,’ shouted the princes; ‘he doesn’t belong to us so we can’t give him away.’ Who acts: We, distance. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 25, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 25, sentence 97

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‘We can’t do that,’ shouted the princes; ‘he doesn’t belong to us so we can’t give him away.’

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**Who acts:** We, distance · **What happens:** not do, shout, not belong, not give away · **To what, where:** that, princes, us, distance

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 25. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (We, distance), 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:pg5615:25:97
# text = ‘We can’t do that,’ shouted the princes; ‘he doesn’t belong to us so we can’t give him away.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
9	shouted	shout	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	princes	prince	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	belong	belong	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	_
20	so	so	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
21	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	conj	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	iobj	_	_
26	away	away	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **do** | can | We | that |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Eventuality |
| 2 | **shout** *speech: express* | past | We *not said here* | the princes |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent prince=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **belong** | present · do-support | distance |  | us |  |  |  | vn attend-107.4-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **give away** | can | we |  | distance |  |  | away *property* | vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent he=Theme |

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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 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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