---
title: ‘Poor man, I am very sorry for him,’ replied the monkey; ‘but you we… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Poor man, I am very sorry for him,’ replied the monkey; ‘but you were unwise not to tell me till we had started.’ Who acts: Poor man, you, we. 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.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 5, sentence 58

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Poor man, I am very sorry for him,’ replied the monkey; ‘but you were unwise not to tell me till we had started.’

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**Who acts:** Poor man, you, we · **What happens:** be, reply, not tell, start · **To what, where:** monkey, me · **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 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Poor man, you, we), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg3454:5:58
# text = ‘Poor man, I am very sorry for him,’ replied the monkey; ‘but you were unwise not to tell me till we had started.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	very	very	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	sorry	sorry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
13	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	monkey	monkey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
17	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
21	unwise	unwise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	parataxis	_	_
25	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	iobj	_	_
26	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
27	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	started	start	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	24	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Poor man |  |  |  |  | for friend; sorry *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | Poor man *not said here* | the monkey |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent monkey=Topic |
| 3 | **is** | past | you |  |  |  |  | unwise *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive |  |  | me |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Recipient |
| 5 | **start** | past · perfect | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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