---
title: Pretending not to be afraid, he spoke to the ghost, and said: “What… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Pretending not to be afraid, he spoke to the ghost, and said: “What hast thou done with thy cheeks so red?” Who acts: husband. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Golden Arm, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The Golden Arm, sentence 11

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Pretending not to be afraid, he spoke to the ghost, and said: “What hast thou done with thy cheeks so red?”

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**Who acts:** husband · **What happens:** pretend, not be, speak, say, have, do · **To what, where:** thou · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Golden Arm. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (husband), 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:pg7439:27:11
# text = Pretending not to be afraid, he spoke to the ghost, and said: “What hast thou done with thy cheeks so red?”
1	Pretending	pretend	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
2	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	cop	_	_
5	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	1	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	ghost	ghost	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
16	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	18	obj	_	_
18	hast	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	ccomp	_	_
19	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	18	obj	_	_
20	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	advcl	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	cheeks	cheek	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	_
24	so	so	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pretend** | gerund | husband *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **is** | to-infinitive | husband *not said here* |  |  |  |  | afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | husband |  |  |  |  | to the ghost | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to ghost=Co-Agent |
| 4 | **say** *speech: ask* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **have** *in a quote* | present |  | thou |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **do** *in a quote* | participle |  |  |  |  |  | with thy cheeks | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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:** «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7439 (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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