---
title: ‘I tell you what it is, madam,’ said he: ‘whether you love this whip… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I tell you what it is, madam,’ said he: ‘whether you love this whipper-snapper Prince or not doesn’t matter in the least. Who acts: I, matter, enchanter, you. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Narcissus and the Princess Potentilla, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Prince Narcissus and the Princess Potentilla, sentence 107

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘I tell you what it is, madam,’ said he: ‘whether you love this whipper-snapper Prince or not doesn’t matter in the least.

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**Who acts:** I, matter, enchanter, you · **What happens:** tell, be, say, love, not matter · **To what, where:** madam, you, Prince, least · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Narcissus and the Princess Potentilla. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, matter, enchanter, you), 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:pg7277:11:107
# text = ‘I tell you what it is, madam,’ said he: ‘whether you love this whipper-snapper Prince or not doesn’t matter in the least.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	tell	tell	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	ccomp	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
7	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	madam	madam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
15	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	love	love	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
19	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	det	_	_
20	whipper	whipper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	snapper	snapper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod:desc	_	_
23	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
24	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
25	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
26	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
28	matter	matter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	least	least	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present | I | madam | you |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |
| 2 | **is a** | present | matter |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | enchanter |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **love** | present | you | Prince  this whipper snapper |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer prince=Stimulus |
| 5 | **not** **matter** | present · do-support | you *not said here* |  |  | the least |  |  | vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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