---
title: “Well, I was dull, and wanted someone to play with me,” he said at l… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Well, I was dull, and wanted someone to play with me,” he said at last, in sulky voice, “and I challenged the rock to catch me. Who acts: Wolverine. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 16, 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/pg3282/16/82/)

<!-- 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 Brown Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/) / [The Brown Fairy Book, part 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/16/) / 82

# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 16, sentence 82

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Well, I was dull, and wanted someone to play with me,” he said at last, in sulky voice, “and I challenged the rock to catch me.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Wolverine · **What happens:** be, want, play, say, challenge, catch · **To what, where:** someone, last, rock, Wolverine · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Wolverine), 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:pg3282:16:82
# text = “Well, I was dull, and wanted someone to play with me,” he said at last, in sulky voice, “and I challenged the rock to catch me.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	dull	dull	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	ccomp	_	_
10	someone	someone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	9	obj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	acl	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	sulky	sulky	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	challenged	challenge	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	parataxis	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	advcl	_	_
34	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | past | Wolverine |  |  |  |  | dull *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **want** *in a quote* | past |  | someone |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot someone=Theme |
| 3 | **play** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  | someone *not said here* |  |  |  | with Wolverine | vn play-114.2-1 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with i=Co-Agent |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Wolverine |  |  | last |  | in sulky voice | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **challenge** *in a quote* | past | Wolverine | the rock |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **catch** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Wolverine *not said here* | Wolverine |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme |

<!-- .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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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 81](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/16/81/)
- next →: [sentence 83](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/16/83/)
- ↑ back to [The Brown Fairy Book, part 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/16/)