---
title: ‘It is better for me to beat the drum a little before I go there,’ t… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘It is better for me to beat the drum a little before I go there,’ thought Walter. Who acts: me, I. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/8/36/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 8, sentence 36

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‘It is better for me to beat the drum a little before I go there,’ thought Walter.

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**Who acts:** me, I · **What happens:** be, beat, go, think · **To what, where:** drum, Walter

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (me, I), 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:pg3454:8:36
# text = ‘It is better for me to beat the drum a little before I go there,’ thought Walter.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	expl	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
5	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	beat	beat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	csubj	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	drum	drum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	obl:unmarked	_	_
13	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	go	go	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
16	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
19	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
20	Walter	Walter	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **beat** | to-infinitive | me | the drum |  |  |  | a little *obl:unmarked* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location drum=Theme |
| 3 | **go** | present | I |  |  | there |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | past |  | Walter |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot walter=Theme |

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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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