---
title: ‘Yes, indeed we have,’ said both the girls, ‘but tell us...’ and the… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Yes, indeed we have,’ said both the girls, ‘but tell us...’ and they wanted to ask who the old man was, but were afraid to. Who acts: we, girls, old man. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 25, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 25, sentence 19

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Yes, indeed we have,’ said both the girls, ‘but tell us...’ and they wanted to ask who the old man was, but were afraid to.

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**Who acts:** we, girls, old man · **What happens:** have, say, tell, want, ask, be · **To what, where:** girls, us · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 25. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we, girls, old man), 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:pg3454:25:19
# text = ‘Yes, indeed we have,’ said both the girls, ‘but tell us...’ and they wanted to ask who the old man was, but were afraid to.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	both	both	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc:preconj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
17	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	...	...	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	_
25	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	24	ccomp	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
32	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
33	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	conj	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | we |  |  |  |  | indeed *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the girls |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | infinitive |  |  | us |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent we=Recipient |
| 4 | **want** | past | girls *= girl* |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 5 | **ask** *speech: ask* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | girls *= girl* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is a** | past | the old man |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | afraid *property* | 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 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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