---
title: As it is, your friends the water-demons would think you meant to lau… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: As it is, your friends the water-demons would think you meant to laugh at them, when they found that I was the feast.” Who acts: plenty, friends, you, I. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 7, sentence 44

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
As it is, your friends the water-demons would think you meant to laugh at them, when they found that I was the feast.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** plenty, friends, you, I · **What happens:** be, think, mean, laugh, find · **To what, where:** feast · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (plenty, friends, you, I), 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:pg3282:7:44
# text = As it is, your friends the water-demons would think you meant to laugh at them, when they found that I was the feast.”
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
8	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	demons	demon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
11	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	laugh	laugh	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	at	at	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
24	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	feast	feast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | present | plenty |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | would | your friends |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **mean** | past | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **laugh** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at demons *= demon* | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **find** | past | friends *= friend* |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is a** | past | I | the feast |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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