---
title: He was cunning enough, however, to conceal his feelings and to make… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He was cunning enough, however, to conceal his feelings and to make no direct answer, but he only asked the maiden, as if carelessly, what was remarkable about the ring? Who acts: love. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon of the North(2), with its dependency tree and the
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Dragon of the North(2), sentence 98

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He was cunning enough, however, to conceal his feelings and to make no direct answer, but he only asked the maiden, as if carelessly, what was remarkable about the ring?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** love · **What happens:** cunn, conceal, make, ask, be · **To what, where:** feelings, direct answer · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon of the North(2). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (love), 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:pg640:5:98
# text = He was cunning enough, however, to conceal his feelings and to make no direct answer, but he only asked the maiden, as if carelessly, what was remarkable about the ring?
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	cunning	cunn	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	however	however	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	conceal	conceal	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	feelings	feeling	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	make	make	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
15	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	17	det	_	_
16	direct	direct	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	only	only	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	maiden	maiden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
28	carelessly	carelessly	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
30	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	32	nsubj	_	_
31	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
32	remarkable	remarkable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	ccomp	_	_
33	about	about	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	ring	ring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cunn** | past · progressive | love |  |  |  |  | enough *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **conceal** | to-infinitive |  | love's feelings |  |  |  | however *property* | vn concealment-16 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent feeling=Patient |
| 3 | **make** | to-infinitive |  | no direct answer |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset answer=Product |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | love |  |  |  |  | maiden *property* | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | about the ring; carelessly, remarkable *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 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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