---
title: 'Very good,' replied the witch, with something that she meant for a… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'Very good,' replied the witch, with something that she meant for a smile, 'but to-day it is late. Who acts: smile. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 33, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/33/66/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Orange Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/) / [Opening, part 33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/33/) / 66

# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 33, sentence 66

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
'Very good,' replied the witch, with something that she meant for a smile, 'but to-day it is late.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** smile · **What happens:** reply, mean, be · **To what, where:** witch

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 33. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (smile), 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:pg3027:33:66
# text = 'Very good,' replied the witch, with something that she meant for a smile, 'but to-day it is late.
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Very	very	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
6	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	6	obl	_	_
12	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
13	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	acl:relcl	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	smile	smile	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
19	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
26	late	late	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past |  | the witch |  |  |  | with something | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent witch=Topic |
| 2 | **mean** | past |  |  |  |  |  | for a smile | vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Pivot for smile=Attribute |
| 3 | **is** | present | smile |  |  |  | day | late *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 65](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/33/65/)
- next →: [sentence 67](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/33/67/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/33/)