---
title: Oh, you fool,” cried the crow, “the fox was only trying to frighten… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Oh, you fool,” cried the crow, “the fox was only trying to frighten you. Who acts: you, fool, fox. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 24, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 24, sentence 78

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Oh, you fool,” cried the crow, “the fox was only trying to frighten you.

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**Who acts:** you, fool, fox · **What happens:** fool, cry, try, frighten · **To what, where:** crow, you

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 24. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, fool, fox), 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:pg2435:24:78
# text = Oh, you fool,” cried the crow, “the fox was only trying to frighten you.
1	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	fool	fool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	crow	crow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	only	only	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	trying	try	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	frighten	frighten	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fool** |  | you |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **cry** *speech: express* *in a quote* | past | fool | the crow |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crow=Topic |
| 3 | **try** | past · progressive | the fox |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **frighten** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the fox *not said here* | you |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus you=Experiencer |

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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 Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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