---
title: “It serves you right for being so silly,” said they; but they pushed… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “It serves you right for being so silly,” said they; but they pushed and hauled at the rock for a long time without making it move an inch. Who acts: course, cattle. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 16, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 16, sentence 85

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“It serves you right for being so silly,” said they; but they pushed and hauled at the rock for a long time without making it move an inch.

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**Who acts:** course, cattle · **What happens:** serve, be, say, push, haul, make · **To what, where:** you, rock, course, inch · **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 (course, cattle), 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:pg3282:16:85
# text = “It serves you right for being so silly,” said they; but they pushed and hauled at the rock for a long time without making it move an inch.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	serves	serve	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	right	right	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	cop	_	_
8	so	so	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	silly	silly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	pushed	push	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	hauled	haul	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	conj	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
27	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
28	making	make	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	move	move	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	_
31	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	inch	inch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **serve** *in a quote* | present | course | you |  |  |  | right *property* | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Attribute |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | silly *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | cattle |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **push** | past | cattle |  |  |  | time |  | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **haul** | participle | cattle *not said here* |  |  | the rock |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **make** | gerund | cattle *not said here* | course |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **move** | infinitive | course *not said here* | a inch |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent inch=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.

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**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.

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