---
title: He seemed to understand me well enough, for he shook his head, thoug… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He seemed to understand me well enough, for he shook his head, though he made other signs to let me know that I should have meat and drink enough, and very good treatment. Who acts: person, me, I. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter I, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Chapter I, sentence 50

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He seemed to understand me well enough, for he shook his head, though he made other signs to let me know that I should have meat and drink enough, and very good treatment.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** person, me, I · **What happens:** seem, understand, shake, make, let, know · **To what, where:** good treatment, me, head, other signs, meat · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter I. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (person, me, I), 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:pg503:43:50
# text = He seemed to understand me well enough, for he shook his head, though he made other signs to let me know that I should have meat and drink enough, and very good treatment.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
7	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	shook	shake	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
18	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	signs	sign	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	_
22	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	ccomp	_	_
28	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	drink	drink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	conj	_	_
31	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
34	very	very	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
35	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	treatment	treatment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | person | good treatment |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **understand** | to-infinitive | person *not said here* | me |  |  |  | enough, well *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer i=Stimulus |
| 3 | **shake** | past | person | person's head |  |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent head=Patient |
| 4 | **make** | past | person | other signs |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sign=Product |
| 5 | **let** | to-infinitive | person *not said here* | me |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **know** | infinitive | me *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 7 | **have** | should | I | meat |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meat=Patient |
| 8 | **drink** | infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  | enough *property* | vn eat-39.1-1 «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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