---
title: ‘Then you had better be quick about it,’ said the jackal, holding ti… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Then you had better be quick about it,’ said the jackal, holding tight on to the heron until he had pointed out the panther’s den. Who acts: you, heron. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 34, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 34, sentence 73

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‘Then you had better be quick about it,’ said the jackal, holding tight on to the heron until he had pointed out the panther’s den.

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**Who acts:** you, heron · **What happens:** have, be, say, hold, point out · **To what, where:** jackal, den · **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 34. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, heron), 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:pg5615:34:73
# text = ‘Then you had better be quick about it,’ said the jackal, holding tight on to the heron until he had pointed out the panther’s den.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
5	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	7	advmod	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	cop	_	_
7	quick	quick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	_
8	about	about	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	jackal	jackal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	holding	hold	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
17	tight	tight	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	on	on	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	heron	heron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
22	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	pointed	point	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
26	out	out	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	panther	panther	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	’s	's	PART	POS	_	28	case	_	_
30	den	den	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | you |  |  |  | then |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about place; quick *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the jackal |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **hold** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | to the heron | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **point out** | past · perfect | heron | the panther's den |  |  |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent den=Patient |

<!-- .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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