---
title: ‘I was just going to tell you that one thing, my dear, to show you w… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I was just going to tell you that one thing, my dear, to show you what a good fortune-teller I am. Who acts: I, going. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Pig, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Enchanted Pig, sentence 99

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‘I was just going to tell you that one thing, my dear, to show you what a good fortune-teller I am.

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**Who acts:** I, going · **What happens:** go, tell, show, be · **To what, where:** you, good fortune teller · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Pig. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, going), 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:pg540:12:99
# text = ‘I was just going to tell you that one thing, my dear, to show you what a good fortune-teller I am.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	just	just	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	csubj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	7	iobj	_	_
9	that	that	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	nummod	_	_
11	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	show	show	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	iobj	_	_
19	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	17	obj	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
21	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
22	fortune	fortune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	teller	teller	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past · progressive | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  | you |  |  | that one thing | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |
| 3 | **show** | to-infinitive | going |  | you |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent you=Recipient what=Topic |
| 4 | **is a** | present |  | a good fortune teller |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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