---
title: He nodded to them, saying, “It must be rather dull standing on the s… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He nodded to them, saying, “It must be rather dull standing on the stairs; I would rather go inside!” Who acts: Kay, bit. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 9, 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/pg5615/9/94/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 9, sentence 94

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He nodded to them, saying, “It must be rather dull standing on the stairs; I would rather go inside!”

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**Who acts:** Kay, bit · **What happens:** nod, say, be, stand, go · **To what, where:** footmen, stairs · **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 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Kay, bit), 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:pg5615:9:94
# text = He nodded to them, saying, “It must be rather dull standing on the stairs; I would rather go inside!”
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	nodded	nod	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
10	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
11	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	cop	_	_
12	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	dull	dull	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	ccomp	_	_
14	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	stairs	stair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
23	inside	inside	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **nod** | past | Kay |  | footmen *= footman* |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: express* | gerund | Kay *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | must | bit |  |  |  |  | dull *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **stand** *in a quote* | gerund | bit *not said here* |  |  | the stairs |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on stair=Location |
| 5 | **go** *in a quote* | would | Kay |  |  |  |  | inside *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=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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