---
title: “Well, then, lend me the ball for a little, and I will play by mysel… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Well, then, lend me the ball for a little, and I will play by myself,” replied the lion, stretching out a paw as he spoke. Who acts: lion. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 29, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 29, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Well, then, lend me the ball for a little, and I will play by myself,” replied the lion, stretching out a paw as he spoke.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** lion · **What happens:** lend, play, reply, stretch out, speak · **To what, where:** ball, lion, paw · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 29. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (lion), 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:pg3282:29:5
# text = “Well, then, lend me the ball for a little, and I will play by myself,” replied the lion, stretching out a paw as he spoke.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	lend	lend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	ccomp	_	_
7	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	iobj	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	ball	ball	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
18	by	by	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
22	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	lion	lion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
26	stretching	stretch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	_
27	out	out	ADP	RP	_	26	compound:prt	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	paw	paw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
30	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
31	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lend** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | the ball | the lion *= lion* |  | then | for a little | vn give-13.1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient ball=Theme |
| 2 | **play** *in a quote* | future | the lion *= lion* |  |  |  |  | by the lion *= lion* | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | the lion |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **stretch out** | gerund | the lion *not said here* | a paw |  |  |  |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent paw=Patient |
| 5 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | lion |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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