---
title: ‘Most certainly,’ answered the little man; ‘and for greater security… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Most certainly,’ answered the little man; ‘and for greater security I will give you one of my lions as a protector. Who acts: Most, I. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch and Her Servants(22), part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch and Her Servants(22), part 2, sentence 1

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‘Most certainly,’ answered the little man; ‘and for greater security I will give you one of my lions as a protector.

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**Who acts:** Most, I · **What happens:** answer, give · **To what, where:** little man, one, you

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch and Her Servants(22), part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Most, 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:pg640:31:1
# text = ‘Most certainly,’ answered the little man; ‘and for greater security I will give you one of my lions as a protector.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Most	most	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	6	nsubj	_	_
3	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
6	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	‘	‘	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	greater	great	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	15	amod	_	_
15	security	security	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	iobj	_	_
20	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	obj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	lions	lion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nmod	_	_
24	as	as	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	protector	protector	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | Most |  | the little man and ‘ |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent man=Eventuality |
| 2 | **give** | future | I | one of my lions | you |  |  | for greater security; as a protector | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent you=Recipient one=Theme for security=Asset |

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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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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