---
title: ‘My son,’ returned the old woman, ‘do not say words like these; you… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘My son,’ returned the old woman, ‘do not say words like these; you risk both our lives. Who acts: son, you. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of a Gazelle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of a Gazelle, sentence 127

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‘My son,’ returned the old woman, ‘do not say words like these; you risk both our lives.

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**Who acts:** son, you · **What happens:** return, not say, risk · **To what, where:** old woman, words, lives · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of a Gazelle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (son, you), 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:pg641:15:127
# text = ‘My son,’ returned the old woman, ‘do not say words like these; you risk both our lives.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	do	do	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	aux	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
15	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
16	like	like	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	these	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	risk	risk	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
21	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	23	det	_	_
22	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	lives	life	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **return** | past | My son | the old woman |  |  |  |  | vn send-11.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent woman=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* | infinitive · do-support | My son *not said here* | words |  |  |  | like these | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent word=Topic |
| 3 | **risk** | present | you | our lives |  |  |  |  | vn risk-94-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Pivot |

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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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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