---
title: “Such a good little dog as I am,” cried Tintin, “could not think of… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Such a good little dog as I am,” cried Tintin, “could not think of letting either of you die for his mistress. Who acts: good little dog, you. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Wonderful Sheep, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Wonderful Sheep, part 1, sentence 56

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Such a good little dog as I am,” cried Tintin, “could not think of letting either of you die for his mistress.

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**Who acts:** good little dog, you · **What happens:** cry, not think, let, die · **To what, where:** either · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Wonderful Sheep, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (good little dog, you), 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:pg503:30:56
# text = “Such a good little dog as I am,” cried Tintin, “could not think of letting either of you die for his mistress.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	6	det:predet	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
5	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
7	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
12	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	Tintin	Tintin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
18	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
19	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
20	letting	let	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
21	either	either	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	20	obj	_	_
22	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	die	die	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	advcl	_	_
25	for	for	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	mistress	mistress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | such good little dog |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **think** *speech: other* *in a quote* | could | such good little dog *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **let** *in a quote* | gerund | such good little dog *not said here* | either |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent either=Theme |
| 4 | **die** *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  | for dog's mistress | vn long-32.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Pivot for mistress=Theme |

<!-- .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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