---
title: ‘It is the wolf that they talk so much about,’ he said to himself, a… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘It is the wolf that they talk so much about,’ he said to himself, and he made himself as small as he could and shrunk into a corner. Who acts: animal, Toueno, Antoine. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 12, sentence 13

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘It is the wolf that they talk so much about,’ he said to himself, and he made himself as small as he could and shrunk into a corner.

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**Who acts:** animal, Toueno, Antoine · **What happens:** be, talk, say, make, shrink · **To what, where:** wolf, Antoine, corner · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (animal, Toueno, Antoine), 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:pg3454:12:13
# text = ‘It is the wolf that they talk so much about,’ he said to himself, and he made himself as small as he could and shrunk into a corner.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	wolf	wolf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	ccomp	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	talk	talk	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
9	so	so	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	much	much	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	about	about	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	parataxis	_	_
22	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	21	obj	_	_
23	as	as	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	xcomp	_	_
25	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	advcl	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	shrunk	shrink	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	conj	_	_
30	into	into	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	corner	corner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | animal | the wolf |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **talk** | present | Toueno |  |  |  |  | about *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Antoine |  | Antoine |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to himself=Recipient |
| 4 | **make** | past | Antoine | Antoine |  |  |  | small *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Product |
| 5 | **shrink** | participle | Antoine *not said here* |  |  |  |  | into a corner *result* | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent into corner=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 Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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