---
title: ‘“I don’t think it’s proper,” said the kettle, “that such a foreign… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘“I don’t think it’s proper,” said the kettle, “that such a foreign bird should be heard.” Who acts: kettle. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 5, sentence 22

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‘“I don’t think it’s proper,” said the kettle, “that such a foreign bird should be heard.”

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**Who acts:** kettle · **What happens:** not think, say, hear · **To what, where:** foreign bird · **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 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (kettle), 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:pg5615:5:22
# text = ‘“I don’t think it’s proper,” said the kettle, “that such a foreign bird should be heard.”
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’s	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	_
9	proper	properly	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	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	kettle	kettle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
16	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
18	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	21	det:predet	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	foreign	foreign	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
22	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	aux:pass	_	_
24	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **think** *speech: other* *in a quote* | present · do-support | the kettle *= kettle* |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the kettle |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **hear** *in a quote* | should · passive |  | such foreign bird |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Stimulus |

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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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