---
title: Of course the neighbours said a great many ill-natured things about… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Of course the neighbours said a great many ill-natured things about the wooden helmet, but the bridegroom was too happy to care, and only laughed at them. Who acts: bridegroom. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Maiden With the Wooden Helmet, with its dependency tree and the p
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Maiden With the Wooden Helmet, sentence 39

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Of course the neighbours said a great many ill-natured things about the wooden helmet, but the bridegroom was too happy to care, and only laughed at them.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** bridegroom · **What happens:** say, be, care, laugh · **To what, where:** great many natured things · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Maiden With the Wooden Helmet. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bridegroom), 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:pg641:31:39
# text = Of course the neighbours said a great many ill-natured things about the wooden helmet, but the bridegroom was too happy to care, and only laughed at them.
1	Of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	fixed	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	neighbours	neighbour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
7	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
8	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
9	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	natured	natured	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
13	about	about	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	wooden	wooden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	helmet	helmet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	bridegroom	bridegroom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	too	too	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	parataxis	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	care	care	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	only	only	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
30	at	at	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | a great many natured things |  |  |  | of the neighbours; about the wooden helmet | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent thing=Topic |
| 2 | **is** | past | the bridegroom |  |  |  |  | happy *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **care** | to-infinitive | the bridegroom *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **laugh** | past |  |  |  |  |  | at neighbours *= neighbour* | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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