---
title: The sexton thought: “He can’t mean that in earnest,” so gave forth n… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The sexton thought: “He can’t mean that in earnest,” so gave forth no sound, and stood as though he were made of stone. Who acts: sexton, earnest. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was, sentence 26

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The sexton thought: “He can’t mean that in earnest,” so gave forth no sound, and stood as though he were made of stone.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** sexton, earnest · **What happens:** think, not mean, give, stand, make · **To what, where:** sound, sexton · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sexton, earnest), 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:pg503:13:26
# text = The sexton thought: “He can’t mean that in earnest,” so gave forth no sound, and stood as though he were made of stone.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sexton	sexton	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	mean	mean	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
10	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	earnest	earn	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
15	so	so	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
17	forth	forth	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	19	det	_	_
19	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
23	as	as	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
24	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux:pass	_	_
27	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	advcl	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | the sexton |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **mean** *in a quote* | can | sexton |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **give** | past | earnest | no sound |  |  |  | forth *property* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sound=Theme |
| 4 | **stand** | past | the sexton *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **make** | past · passive |  | sexton |  |  |  | of stone | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |

<!-- .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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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