---
title: Very likely the wolf, who was cunning and clever, may have understoo… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Very likely the wolf, who was cunning and clever, may have understood what she said, but he thought it best to give no sign, and suffered the skin to be sewn upon him. Who acts: wolf, idea, ram. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 12, with its dependency t
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/12/24/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/12/) / 24

# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 12, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Very likely the wolf, who was cunning and clever, may have understood what she said, but he thought it best to give no sign, and suffered the skin to be sewn upon him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** wolf, idea, ram · **What happens:** cunn, understand, say, think, give, suffer · **To what, where:** wolf, sign, skin · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (wolf, idea, ram), 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:pg3454:12:24
# text = Very likely the wolf, who was cunning and clever, may have understood what she said, but he thought it best to give no sign, and suffered the skin to be sewn upon him.
1	Very	very	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	likely	likely	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	wolf	wolf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	cunning	cunn	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	appos	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	clever	clever	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
12	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	aux	_	_
14	understood	understand	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
15	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	14	obj	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	parataxis	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	expl	_	_
23	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	21	ccomp	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	ccomp	_	_
26	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	27	det	_	_
27	sign	sign	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	suffered	suffer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
34	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	aux:pass	_	_
35	sewn	sew	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	advcl	_	_
36	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cunn** | past · progressive | the wolf |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **understand** | may · perfect · passive |  | the wolf |  |  |  | likely *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | idea |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | past | ram |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **give** | to-infinitive |  | no sign |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sign=Theme |
| 6 | **suffer** | past | ram *not said here* | the skin |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer skin=Stimulus |
| 7 | **sew** | to-infinitive · passive | ram *not said here* |  |  |  |  | upon ram | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: upon he=Destination |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/12/23/)
- next →: [sentence 25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/12/25/)
- ↑ back to [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/12/)