---
title: But that the girl wouldn't do, till her stepmother said: “Do what yo… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But that the girl wouldn't do, till her stepmother said: “Do what you promised, girl; girls must keep their promises. Who acts: girl, you, girls, words. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Well of the World's End, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The Well of the World's End, sentence 39

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But that the girl wouldn't do, till her stepmother said: “Do what you promised, girl; girls must keep their promises.

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**Who acts:** girl, you, girls, words · **What happens:** not do, say, do, promise, keep · **To what, where:** promises · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Well of the World's End. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (girl, you, girls, words), 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:pg7439:47:39
# text = But that the girl wouldn't do, till her stepmother said: “Do what you promised, girl; girls must keep their promises.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
2	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
9	till	till	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	stepmother	stepmother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
14	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	Do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
16	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	15	obj	_	_
17	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	promised	promise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
22	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
23	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
25	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	promises	promise	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **do** | would | the girl |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  | till girl's stepmother |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **do** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 4 | **promise** *speech: promise* *in a quote* | past | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **keep** *in a quote* | must | girls | words's promises |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent promise=Theme |
| 6 | **promise** *in a quote* |  | words *= word* |  |  |  |  |  | nom promise «communication transitive»: poss=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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