---
title: Then he said to the peasant, ‘You are a nice sort of person to seize… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he said to the peasant, ‘You are a nice sort of person to seize animals and to talk of killing them! Who acts: peasant, You. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 4, 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/pg5615/4/29/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 4, sentence 29

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Then he said to the peasant, ‘You are a nice sort of person to seize animals and to talk of killing them!

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**Who acts:** peasant, You · **What happens:** say, be, seize, talk, kill · **To what, where:** peasant, nice sort, animals · **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 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (peasant, 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:pg5615:4:29
# text = Then he said to the peasant, ‘You are a nice sort of person to seize animals and to talk of killing them!
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	peasant	peasant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
10	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	nice	nice	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	sort	sort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	appos	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	seize	seize	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
18	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	talk	talk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	conj	_	_
22	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
23	killing	kill	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	advcl	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | peasant |  | the peasant |  | then |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to peasant=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **is a** | present | You | a nice sort |  |  |  | of person | tree rules |
| 3 | **seize** | to-infinitive |  | animals |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent animal=Theme |
| 4 | **talk** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **kill** | gerund |  | animals *= animal* |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |

<!-- .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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