---
title: ‘Oh dear, what nonsense!’ exclaimed the elder; ‘and, besides, what p… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Oh dear, what nonsense!’ exclaimed the elder; ‘and, besides, what proof have we that you are speaking the truth?’ Who acts: proof, you. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 22, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 22, sentence 123

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‘Oh dear, what nonsense!’ exclaimed the elder; ‘and, besides, what proof have we that you are speaking the truth?’

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**Who acts:** proof, you · **What happens:** nonsense, exclaim, have, speak · **To what, where:** elder, we, truth · **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 22. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (proof, you), 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:pg5615:22:123
# text = ‘Oh dear, what nonsense!’ exclaimed the elder; ‘and, besides, what proof have we that you are speaking the truth?’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	3	discourse	_	_
3	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	6	nsubj	_	_
6	nonsense	nonsense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
9	exclaimed	exclaim	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	elder	elder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
13	‘	‘	SYM	#	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	besides	besides	INTJ	UH	_	18	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
18	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	3	conj	_	_
19	proof	proof	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	_
21	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
23	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	advcl	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **nonsense** |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **exclaim** *speech: express* | past |  | the elder |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent elder=Topic |
| 3 | **have** | present | proof | we |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent we=Patient |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* | present · progressive | you | the truth |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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 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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