---
title: Never mind," he said, "I won't eat the sweetmeats; the ants shall ea… — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Never mind," he said, "I won't eat the sweetmeats; the ants shall eat them." Who acts: you, prince, I, ants. A sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Indian Fairy Tales, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 1, sentence 77

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Never mind," he said, "I won't eat the sweetmeats; the ants shall eat them."

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**Who acts:** you, prince, I, ants · **What happens:** not mind, say, not eat, eat · **To what, where:** sweetmeats · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, prince, I, ants), 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:pg7128:7:77
# text = Never mind," he said, "I won't eat the sweetmeats; the ants shall eat them."
1	Never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	2	advmod	_	_
2	mind	mind	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	wo	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	sweetmeats	sweetmeat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	ants	ant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
18	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **mind** | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **eat** | future | I | the sweetmeats |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sweetmeat=Patient |
| 4 | **eat** | shall | the ants | sweetmeats *= sweetmeat* |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |

<!-- .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:** «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7128 (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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