---
title: ‘Then we are much obliged to you,’ said the rats, and they went back… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Then we are much obliged to you,’ said the rats, and they went back to their friends. Who acts: rats. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/11/155/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 11, sentence 155

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‘Then we are much obliged to you,’ said the rats, and they went back to their friends.

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**Who acts:** rats · **What happens:** oblige, say, go back · **To what, where:** we, you, rats · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (rats), 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:pg5615:11:155
# text = ‘Then we are much obliged to you,’ said the rats, and they went back to their friends.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
3	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux:pass	_	_
5	much	much	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	obliged	oblige	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	ccomp	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	rats	rat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
18	back	back	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **oblige** | present · passive |  | we | you |  | then |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the rats |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **go back** | past | rats *= rat* |  |  |  |  | to rats's friends *result* | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to friend=Result |

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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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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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