---
title: “Let us see which of us two is strongest,” said the young tortoise,… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Let us see which of us two is strongest,” said the young tortoise, marching up to the elephant. Who acts: us, young tortoise. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2, sentence 46

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“Let us see which of us two is strongest,” said the young tortoise, marching up to the elephant.

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**Who acts:** us, young tortoise · **What happens:** let, see, be, say, march up · **To what, where:** us · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (us, young tortoise), 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:pg3282:35:46
# text = “Let us see which of us two is strongest,” said the young tortoise, marching up to the elephant.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
3	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	_
8	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	appos	_	_
9	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
10	strongest	strong	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	marching	march	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
19	up	up	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **let** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | us |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **see** *in a quote* | infinitive | us *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  |  |  | strong *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the young tortoise |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **march up** | gerund | the young tortoise *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the elephant *result* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme to elephant=Result |

<!-- .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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