---
title: ‘Never mind that,’ said the gazelle, ‘but listen to what I say! — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Never mind that,’ said the gazelle, ‘but listen to what I say! Who acts: gazelle, I. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of a Gazelle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of a Gazelle, sentence 23

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‘Never mind that,’ said the gazelle, ‘but listen to what I say!

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**Who acts:** gazelle, I · **What happens:** not mind, say, listen · **To what, where:** that, gazelle · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of a Gazelle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (gazelle, 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:pg641:15:23
# text = ‘Never mind that,’ said the gazelle, ‘but listen to what I say!
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	3	advmod	_	_
3	mind	mind	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
4	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	gazelle	gazelle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	listen	listen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	acl:relcl	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	obl	_	_
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **mind** | infinitive |  | that |  |  |  |  | vn caring-75.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the gazelle |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **listen** | infinitive | the gazelle *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the gazelle | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to what=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

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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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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