---
title: ‘Why not?’ replied Marie, who happened to be in a very good temper;… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Why not?’ replied Marie, who happened to be in a very good temper; ‘it might amuse us a little. Who acts: Marie, temper. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 16, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 16, sentence 6

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‘Why not?’ replied Marie, who happened to be in a very good temper; ‘it might amuse us a little.

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**Who acts:** Marie, temper · **What happens:** not reply, happen, be, amuse · **To what, where:** good temper, us

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Marie, temper), 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:pg5615:16:6
# text = ‘Why not?’ replied Marie, who happened to be in a very good temper; ‘it might amuse us a little.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
6	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	Marie	Marie	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
10	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
12	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	cop	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
15	very	very	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	temper	temper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
19	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	amuse	amuse	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
23	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **reply** *speech: assert* | past | Marie |  |  |  |  |  | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **happen** | past | Marie |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | to-infinitive | Marie *not said here* |  |  | a good temper |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **amuse** | might | temper | us |  |  |  | a little *obl:unmarked* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus we=Experiencer |

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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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