---
title: He was so proud that if anyone of lower rank than his own ventured t… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He was so proud that if anyone of lower rank than his own ventured to speak to him or ask him anything, he would say nothing but ‘P!’ and that does not mean anything. Who acts: Emperor, that. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nightingale, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Nightingale, sentence 26

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He was so proud that if anyone of lower rank than his own ventured to speak to him or ask him anything, he would say nothing but ‘P!’ and that does not mean anything.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Emperor, that · **What happens:** be, venture, speak, ask, say, not mean · **To what, where:** Emperor, anything, nothing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nightingale. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Emperor, that), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg640:48:26
# text = He was so proud that if anyone of lower rank than his own ventured to speak to him or ask him anything, he would say nothing but ‘P!’ and that does not mean anything.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	so	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	proud	proud	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
6	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
7	anyone	anyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	12	nsubj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	lower	low	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	10	amod	_	_
10	rank	rank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
11	than	than	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	conj	_	_
13	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	xcomp	_	_
14	ventured	venture	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	conj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	_
19	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	conj	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	conj	_	_
27	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	26	obj	_	_
28	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
29	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	P	p	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	26	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
34	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	37	nsubj	_	_
35	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
36	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	37	advmod	_	_
37	mean	mean	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	conj	_	_
38	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	37	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Emperor |  |  |  |  | proud *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **venture** | participle | Emperor *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | Emperor *not said here* |  | Emperor |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to he=Co-Agent |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | infinitive | Emperor *not said here* | anything | Emperor |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | would | Emperor | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent nothing=Topic |
| 6 | **not** **mean** | present · do-support | that | anything |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Topic |

<!-- .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 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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