---
title: ‘You must cross your legs,’ said the daughter; but Esben could not u… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘You must cross your legs,’ said the daughter; but Esben could not understand what she meant by this. Who acts: You, daughter, Esben. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 29, 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/pg5615/29/74/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 29, sentence 74

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‘You must cross your legs,’ said the daughter; but Esben could not understand what she meant by this.

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**Who acts:** You, daughter, Esben · **What happens:** cross, say, not understand, mean · **To what, where:** legs · **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 29. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (You, daughter, Esben), 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:pg5615:29:74
# text = ‘You must cross your legs,’ said the daughter; but Esben could not understand what she meant by this.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	cross	cross	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
5	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	Esben	Esben	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
15	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	parataxis	_	_
18	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	20	obj	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	ccomp	_	_
21	by	by	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cross** | must | You | your legs |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leg=Patient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the daughter |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **understand** | could | Esben |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **mean** | past | Esben |  |  |  |  | by this | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Topic |

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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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