---
title: 'Nay, then,' answered Covan as before, 'it had been easier for you t… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'Nay, then,' answered Covan as before, 'it had been easier for you to call off your dogs than to come here to tell me.' Who acts: it, you. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 30, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 30, sentence 75

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'Nay, then,' answered Covan as before, 'it had been easier for you to call off your dogs than to come here to tell me.'

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**Who acts:** it, you · **What happens:** answer, be, call off, come, tell · **To what, where:** Covan, dogs, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 30. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (it, you), 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:pg3027:30:75
# text = 'Nay, then,' answered Covan as before, 'it had been easier for you to call off your dogs than to come here to tell me.'
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Nay	nay	INTJ	UH	_	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
8	Covan	Covan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
9	as	as	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	before	before	ADV	RB	_	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	16	cop	_	_
16	easier	easy	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
17	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	csubj	_	_
21	off	off	ADP	RP	_	20	compound:prt	_	_
22	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	dogs	dog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
24	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	advcl	_	_
27	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	26	advmod	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	conj	_	_
30	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past |  |  | Covan |  | then |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent covan=Eventuality |
| 2 | **is** | past · perfect | it |  |  |  |  | easy *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **call off** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | you |  | your dogs |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent dog=Recipient |
| 4 | **come** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  | here |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  | me |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Recipient |

<!-- .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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