---
title: ‘I should like him for a pet,’ thought the girl, and the next time t… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I should like him for a pet,’ thought the girl, and the next time the fish swam by, she put out her hand and caught him. Who acts: I, fish, girl. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 22, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 22, sentence 71

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘I should like him for a pet,’ thought the girl, and the next time the fish swam by, she put out her hand and caught him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, fish, girl · **What happens:** like, think, time, swim, put out, catch · **To what, where:** fish, girl, hand · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 22. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, fish, girl), 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:pg3454:22:71
# text = ‘I should like him for a pet,’ thought the girl, and the next time the fish swam by, she put out her hand and caught him.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	pet	pet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
11	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl:unmarked	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
21	swam	swim	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	acl	_	_
22	by	by	ADP	IN	_	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
24	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	put	put	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	_
26	out	out	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	_
27	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	conj	_	_
31	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **like** | should | I | fish |  |  |  | for a pet | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus for pet=Attribute |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past |  | the girl |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent girl=Attribute clause=Theme |
| 3 | **time** |  | the fish |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **swim** | participle |  | the fish *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **put out** | past | girl | girl's hand |  |  |  |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent hand=Goal |
| 6 | **catch** | past | girl *not said here* | fish |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=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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