---
title: ‘I should like nothing better,’ cried the monkey, his teeth chatteri… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I should like nothing better,’ cried the monkey, his teeth chattering, as they always did when he was pleased. Who acts: I, teeth, friend. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/5/44/)

<!-- 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 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/5/) / 44

# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 5, sentence 44

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘I should like nothing better,’ cried the monkey, his teeth chattering, as they always did when he was pleased.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, teeth, friend · **What happens:** like, cry, chatter, do, be · **To what, where:** nothing, monkey · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, teeth, friend), 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:pg3454:5:44
# text = ‘I should like nothing better,’ cried the monkey, his teeth chattering, as they always did when he was pleased.
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	9	ccomp	_	_
5	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	4	obj	_	_
6	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
9	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	monkey	monkey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	appos	_	_
15	chattering	chatter	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	20	advmod	_	_
20	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
21	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	24	mark	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
24	pleased	pleased	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **like** | should | I | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot nothing=Theme |
| 2 | **cry** *speech: express* | past |  | the monkey |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **chatter** | gerund | friend's teeth *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **do** | past | teeth *= tooth* |  |  |  |  | always *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** | past | friend |  |  |  |  | pleased *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.

<!-- 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 43](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/5/43/)
- next →: [sentence 45](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/5/45/)
- ↑ back to [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/5/)