---
title: But as he did not want the real story to be known, he said that abou… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But as he did not want the real story to be known, he said that about midnight a huge wasp had flown through the branches, and buzzed incessantly round him. Who acts: question. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch and Her Servants(22), part 1, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch and Her Servants(22), part 1, sentence 52

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But as he did not want the real story to be known, he said that about midnight a huge wasp had flown through the branches, and buzzed incessantly round him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** question · **What happens:** not want, know, say, fly, buzz · **To what, where:** real story, midnight, branches · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch and Her Servants(22), 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 (question), 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:pg640:30:52
# text = But as he did not want the real story to be known, he said that about midnight a huge wasp had flown through the branches, and buzzed incessantly round him.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
2	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
11	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	known	know	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
17	about	about	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	midnight	midnight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	wasp	wasp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	flown	fly	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	ccomp	_	_
24	through	through	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	buzzed	buzz	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
30	incessantly	incessantly	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
31	round	round	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **want** | past · do-support | question | the real story |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot story=Theme |
| 2 | **know** | to-infinitive · passive | question *not said here* | the real story *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V» |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | question |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **fly** | past · perfect · passive |  | midnight |  | the branches |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: subject=Theme through branch=Location |
| 5 | **buzz** | past | question *not said here* |  |  |  |  | round question; incessantly *property* | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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