---
title: 'Of course,' answered the mouse, 'nothing is easier; but as the full… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'Of course,' answered the mouse, 'nothing is easier; but as the full moon is to-morrow night, and there is not much time, I had better begin at once.' Who acts: nothing, I. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 34, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/34/51/)

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 34, sentence 51

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
'Of course,' answered the mouse, 'nothing is easier; but as the full moon is to-morrow night, and there is not much time, I had better begin at once.'

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**Who acts:** nothing, I · **What happens:** answer, be, have, begin · **To what, where:** mouse, much time

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 34. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (nothing, I), 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:pg3027:34:51
# text = 'Of course,' answered the mouse, 'nothing is easier; but as the full moon is to-morrow night, and there is not much time, I had better begin at once.'
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Of	of	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADV	6	advmod	_	_
3	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
6	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	advcl	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	mouse	mouse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	13	nsubj	_	_
12	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	easier	easy	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
16	as	as	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	moon	moon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
20	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	morrow	morrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	_
24	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	28	expl	_	_
28	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
29	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
30	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
33	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
35	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	34	xcomp	_	_
36	begin	begin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	advcl	_	_
37	at	at	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	34	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past |  |  | the mouse |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent mouse=Eventuality |
| 2 | **is** | present | nothing |  |  |  |  | easy *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  | to morrow night | as the full moon | tree rules |
| 4 | **is a** | present |  | much time |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **have** | past | I |  |  |  |  | good *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **begin** | infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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