---
title: He dared not tell them the truth, lest they should laugh at him, so… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He dared not tell them the truth, lest they should laugh at him, so he only said that he should like some bread baked by the kitchen girl in the distant farm. Who acts: son, parents. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dirty Shepherdess, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Dirty Shepherdess, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He dared not tell them the truth, lest they should laugh at him, so he only said that he should like some bread baked by the kitchen girl in the distant farm.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** son, parents · **What happens:** not dare, not tell, laugh, say, like, bake · **To what, where:** truth, parents, bread · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dirty Shepherdess. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (son, parents), 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:pg7277:24:28
# text = He dared not tell them the truth, lest they should laugh at him, so he only said that he should like some bread baked by the kitchen girl in the distant farm.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	dared	dare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	2	advmod	_	_
4	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	lest	lest	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	laugh	laugh	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	only	only	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	ccomp	_	_
24	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	25	det	_	_
25	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	baked	bake	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	acl	_	_
27	by	by	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	kitchen	kitchen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	compound	_	_
30	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	distant	distant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	farm	farm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **dare** | past | son |  |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | infinitive | son *not said here* | the truth | parents *= parent* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient truth=Topic |
| 3 | **laugh** | should | parents *= parent* |  |  |  |  | at son | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | son |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **like** | should | son | some bread |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot bread=Theme |
| 6 | **bake** | participle |  | some bread *not said here* |  |  |  | by the kitchen girl in the distant farm | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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