---
title: ‘I’ll venture to say that the idle minx has not done anything at all… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I’ll venture to say that the idle minx has not done anything at all—she prefers to sit with her hands before her to keep them white.’ Who acts: I, idle minx, minx. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Graciosa and Percinet, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Graciosa and Percinet, part 2, sentence 85

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘I’ll venture to say that the idle minx has not done anything at all—she prefers to sit with her hands before her to keep them white.’

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**Who acts:** I, idle minx, minx · **What happens:** venture, say, not do, prefer, sit, keep · **To what, where:** anything, all, keys · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Graciosa and Percinet, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, idle minx, minx), 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:pg540:24:85
# text = ‘I’ll venture to say that the idle minx has not done anything at all—she prefers to sit with her hands before her to keep them white.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	’ll	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	venture	venture	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	idle	idle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	minx	minx	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
11	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	ccomp	_	_
14	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	13	obj	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	prefers	prefer	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	sit	sit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	_
25	before	before	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	advcl	_	_
29	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **venture** | future | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **do** | present · perfect | the idle minx | anything |  | all |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Eventuality |
| 4 | **prefer** | present | minx |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 5 | **sit** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | minx *not said here* |  |  |  | before minx | with minx's hands | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before she=Location |
| 6 | **keep** | to-infinitive | minx *not said here* | keys *= key* |  |  |  | white *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=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 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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