---
title: “Oh, certainly, godfather, certainly,” replied the wolf; but the bea… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Oh, certainly, godfather, certainly,” replied the wolf; but the bear said he should like to have a specimen of his howling, to make sure that he knew his business. Who acts: godfather, bear. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 25, with its dependency 
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 25, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Oh, certainly, godfather, certainly,” replied the wolf; but the bear said he should like to have a specimen of his howling, to make sure that he knew his business.

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**Who acts:** godfather, bear · **What happens:** reply, say, like, have, make, know · **To what, where:** wolf, specimen, business · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 25. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (godfather, bear), 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:pg2435:25:1
# text = “Oh, certainly, godfather, certainly,” replied the wolf; but the bear said he should like to have a specimen of his howling, to make sure that he knew his business.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
6	godfather	godfather	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
11	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	wolf	wolf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	bear	bear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	ccomp	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	specimen	specimen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	howling	howling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	conj	_	_
32	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	xcomp	_	_
33	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
34	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	ccomp	_	_
36	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
37	business	business	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | godfather | the wolf |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent wolf=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the bear |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **like** | should | bear |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **have** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | bear *not said here* | a specimen of bear's howling |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent specimen=Patient |
| 5 | **make** | to-infinitive | bear *not said here* |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |
| 6 | **know** | past | godfather | bear's business |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer business=Stimulus |
| 7 | **howl** |  | bear |  |  |  |  |  | nom howling «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 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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