---
title: ‘You are very, very stupid, my dear child,’ his mother would sometim… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘You are very, very stupid, my dear child,’ his mother would sometimes say to him, and then she would add with a laugh, ‘Certainly you will never catch a wolf by the tail.’ Who acts: You, mother. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 12, with its dependency 
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 12, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘You are very, very stupid, my dear child,’ his mother would sometimes say to him, and then she would add with a laugh, ‘Certainly you will never catch a wolf by the tail.’

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**Who acts:** You, mother · **What happens:** be, say, add, not catch · **To what, where:** child, wolf · **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 (You, mother), 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:pg3454:12:8
# text = ‘You are very, very stupid, my dear child,’ his mother would sometimes say to him, and then she would add with a laugh, ‘Certainly you will never catch a wolf by the tail.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	very	very	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	stupid	stupid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
10	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
16	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	18	advmod	_	_
18	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	parataxis	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
23	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	26	advmod	_	_
24	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	add	add	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	laugh	laugh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
31	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	Certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
33	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
34	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
35	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	36	advmod	_	_
36	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	conj	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	wolf	wolf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obj	_	_
39	by	by	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | You |  |  |  |  | my dear child *obl*; stupid *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | would | child's mother |  | child |  |  | sometimes *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to he=Recipient |
| 3 | **add** *speech: assert* | would | mother |  |  |  | then | with a laugh | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent with laugh=Co-Patient |
| 4 | **not** **catch** | future | you | a wolf |  |  |  | by the tail; certainly *property* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wolf=Theme |

<!-- .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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