---
title: ‘Perhaps you are a girdle?’ said the shirt-collar, ‘an under girdle?… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Perhaps you are a girdle?’ said the shirt-collar, ‘an under girdle? for I see that you are for use as well as for ornament, my pretty miss!’ Who acts: you, girdle, I. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/6/7/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 6, sentence 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Perhaps you are a girdle?’ said the shirt-collar, ‘an under girdle? for I see that you are for use as well as for ornament, my pretty miss!’

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**Who acts:** you, girdle, I · **What happens:** be, say, see · **To what, where:** girdle, shirt collar · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, girdle, I), 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:pg5615:6:7
# text = ‘Perhaps you are a girdle?’ said the shirt-collar, ‘an under girdle? for I see that you are for use as well as for ornament, my pretty miss!’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	girdle	girdle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	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	13	det	_	_
11	shirt	shirt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	collar	collar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	under	under	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	girdle	girdle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
20	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	see	see	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
24	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
26	for	for	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	ccomp	_	_
28	as	as	ADV	RB	ExtPos=CCONJ	32	cc	_	_
29	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	28	fixed	_	_
30	as	as	ADP	IN	_	28	fixed	_	_
31	for	for	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	ornament	ornament	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
34	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
35	pretty	pretty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	miss	miss	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	36	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | you | a girdle |  |  |  | perhaps *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | a girdle | the shirt collar and a girdle |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent collar=Topic |
| 3 | **see** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is** | present | you |  |  |  |  | for use as ornament | 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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