---
title: He did not much believe in the horse's plan; but he could not think… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He did not much believe in the horse's plan; but he could not think of anything better, so he called to the ants, and bade them collect the bran as fast as they could. Who acts: Jose, horse. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 32, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 32, sentence 59

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He did not much believe in the horse's plan; but he could not think of anything better, so he called to the ants, and bade them collect the bran as fast as they could.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Jose, horse · **What happens:** believe, not think, call, collect, plan · **To what, where:** plan, ants, bade · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 32. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Jose, horse), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3027:32:59
# text = He did not much believe in the horse's plan; but he could not think of anything better, so he called to the ants, and bade them collect the bran as fast as they could.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	much	much	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	's	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	plan	plan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	16	obl	_	_
19	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	18	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	so	so	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	ants	ant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
29	bade	bade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
30	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	collect	collect	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	bran	bran	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
34	as	as	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
35	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	31	advmod	_	_
36	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	38	mark	_	_
37	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
38	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **believe** | past · do-support | Jose |  |  | the horse's plan |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **not** **think** *speech: other* | could | Jose |  |  |  |  | of anything | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **call** | past | Jose |  | the ants |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to ant=Recipient |
| 4 | **collect** | present |  | bade |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bran=Theme |
| 5 | **plan** |  | the horse |  |  |  |  |  | nom plan «cognition transitive»: 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 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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