---
title: ‘Well, I have not exactly been thinking of selling him,’ said the ma… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Well, I have not exactly been thinking of selling him,’ said the man, ‘but if we could agree, perhaps——’ Who acts: man, we. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Soria Moria Castle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Soria Moria Castle, sentence 121

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‘Well, I have not exactly been thinking of selling him,’ said the man, ‘but if we could agree, perhaps——’

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**Who acts:** man, we · **What happens:** not think, sell, say, agree · **To what, where:** Halvor · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Soria Moria Castle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, we), 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:pg540:6:121
# text = ‘Well, I have not exactly been thinking of selling him,’ said the man, ‘but if we could agree, perhaps——’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
7	exactly	exactly	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
8	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	aux	_	_
9	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	ccomp	_	_
10	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
11	selling	sell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	agree	agree	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
26	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	’	'	PUNCT	NFP	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **think** *speech: other* | present · perfect · progressive |  |  |  |  |  | exactly *property* | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **sell** | gerund |  | Halvor |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **agree** *speech: agree* *a condition, not said to happen* | could | we |  |  |  |  | perhaps *property* | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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