---
title: “I think it would be best for me to enter and steal the hens,” said… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “I think it would be best for me to enter and steal the hens,” said the fox; but this did not please the boy at all. Who acts: fox, this. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 23, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/23/14/)

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 23, sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“I think it would be best for me to enter and steal the hens,” said the fox; but this did not please the boy at all.

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**Who acts:** fox, this · **What happens:** think, be, enter, steal, say, not please · **To what, where:** hens, boy, all · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 23. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fox, this), 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:pg3282:23:14
# text = “I think it would be best for me to enter and steal the hens,” said the fox; but this did not please the boy at all.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	think	think	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
5	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	cop	_	_
7	best	well	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	3	advmod	_	_
8	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	enter	enter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	steal	steal	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	hens	hen	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
18	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
23	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	26	nsubj	_	_
24	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
26	please	please	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	at	at	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* *in a quote* | present | the fox *= fox* |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | would |  |  |  |  |  | well *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **enter** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | the fox *= fox* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **steal** *in a quote* | infinitive | the fox *= fox* *not said here* | the hens |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location hen=Theme |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the fox |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **not** **please** | past · do-support | this | the boy |  | all |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus boy=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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