---
title: 'That can't really be a deer,' thought the prince to himself, reinin… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'That can't really be a deer,' thought the prince to himself, reining in his horse and not attempting to follow her. ' Who acts: That, deer. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 25, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/25/69/)

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 25, sentence 69

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'That can't really be a deer,' thought the prince to himself, reining in his horse and not attempting to follow her. '

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**Who acts:** That, deer · **What happens:** not be, think, rein, not attempt, not follow · **To what, where:** deer, prince, horse

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, 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 (That, deer), 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:pg3027:25:69
# text = 'That can't really be a deer,' thought the prince to himself, reining in his horse and not attempting to follow her. '
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	nsubj	_	_
3	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
5	really	really	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	cop	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	deer	deer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
11	thought	think	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	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	reining	rein	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
23	attempting	attempt	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	conj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	follow	follow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
26	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
28	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | can | That | a deer |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | a deer | the prince | Deer |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot prince=Theme |
| 3 | **rein** | gerund | a deer *not said here* |  |  |  |  | in Deer's horse | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **attempt** | gerund | a deer *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **not** **follow** | to-infinitive | a deer *not said here* | horse |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme |

<!-- .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 Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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