---
title: 'It is very kind of you to say so,' answered the mother, who by this… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'It is very kind of you to say so,' answered the mother, who by this time had some secret doubts of its loveliness. ' Who acts: It, mother. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 9, sentence 1

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'It is very kind of you to say so,' answered the mother, who by this time had some secret doubts of its loveliness. '

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**Who acts:** It, mother · **What happens:** be, say, answer, have, doubt · **To what, where:** mother, secret doubts, loveliness · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, mother), 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:pg3027:9:1
# text = 'It is very kind of you to say so,' answered the mother, who by this time had some secret doubts of its loveliness. '
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	kind	kind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	csubj	_	_
10	so	so	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
13	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
18	by	by	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	20	det	_	_
20	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
21	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
22	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	24	det	_	_
23	secret	secret	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	doubts	doubt	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	loveliness	loveliness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
29	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | It |  |  |  |  | of you; kind *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past |  |  | the mother |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent mother=Eventuality |
| 4 | **have** | past | the mother | some secret doubts of its loveliness |  |  | time |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent doubt=Patient |
| 5 | **doubt** |  |  | its loveliness |  |  |  |  | nom doubt «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

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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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