---
title: And the soldiers answered him, ‘Did we not tell you, master, what th… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And the soldiers answered him, ‘Did we not tell you, master, what the cat was doing, and did you not say, “My cat and my people”?’ Who acts: soldiers, we, cat, you. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nunda, Eater of People, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Nunda, Eater of People, sentence 178

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And the soldiers answered him, ‘Did we not tell you, master, what the cat was doing, and did you not say, “My cat and my people”?’

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**Who acts:** soldiers, we, cat, you · **What happens:** answer, not tell, do, not say · **To what, where:** cat, master, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nunda, Eater of People. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (soldiers, we, cat, you), 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:pg641:29:178
# text = And the soldiers answered him, ‘Did we not tell you, master, what the cat was doing, and did you not say, “My cat and my people”?’
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	soldiers	soldier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	Did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
9	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	tell	tell	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
12	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	11	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	20	obj	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
24	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
26	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
32	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the soldiers |  | cat |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent he=Eventuality |
| 2 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | past · do-support | we | master | you |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent you=Recipient master=Topic |
| 3 | **do** | past · progressive | the cat | master |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 4 | **do** | past | the soldiers *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* | present | you | My cat and my people |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent cat=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 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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