---
title: It was not that the fagot-maker was not, perhaps, more vexed than hi… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It was not that the fagot-maker was not, perhaps, more vexed than his wife, but that she teased him, and that he was of the humor of a great many others, who love wives to speak well, but think those very importunate who are continually doing so. Who acts: tongue, woman, God, great many others. A se
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Little Thumb, sentence 36

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was not that the fagot-maker was not, perhaps, more vexed than his wife, but that she teased him, and that he was of the humor of a great many others, who love wives to speak well, but think those very importunate who are continually doing so.

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**Who acts:** tongue, woman, God, great many others · **What happens:** not be, tease, be, love, speak, think · **To what, where:** God, wives, those · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Little Thumb. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tongue, woman, God, great many others), 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:pg503:33:36
# text = It was not that the fagot-maker was not, perhaps, more vexed than his wife, but that she teased him, and that he was of the humor of a great many others, who love wives to speak well, but think those very importunate who are continually doing so.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj:outer	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	fagot	fagot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	maker	maker	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
12	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
14	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	15	advmod	_	_
15	vexed	vex	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	than	than	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	teased	tease	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
27	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	humor	humor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	parataxis	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
35	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
36	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
39	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	40	nsubj	_	_
40	love	love	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	37	parataxis	_	_
41	wives	wife	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	obj	_	_
42	to	to	PART	TO	_	43	mark	_	_
43	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	acl	_	_
44	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	43	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
46	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
47	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	40	conj	_	_
48	those	that	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	47	obl	_	_
49	very	very	ADV	RB	_	50	advmod	_	_
50	importunate	importunate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	appos	_	_
51	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	54	nsubj	_	_
52	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	54	aux	_	_
53	continually	continually	ADV	RB	_	54	advmod	_	_
54	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	50	ccomp	_	_
55	so	so	ADV	RB	_	54	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | tongue |  |  |  |  | than God's wife; vex *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **tease** | past | woman | God |  |  |  |  | vn bully-59.5 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | past | God |  |  |  |  | of the humor; of a great many others | tree rules |
| 4 | **love** | present | a great many others | wives |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer wife=Stimulus |
| 5 | **speak** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | a great many others *not said here* | wives *not said here* |  |  |  | well *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **think** *speech: other* | infinitive | a great many others *not said here* | those |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **do** | present · progressive |  |  |  |  |  | continually *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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