---
title: But, in spite of Potentilla’s efforts to behave politely to the tire… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But, in spite of Potentilla’s efforts to behave politely to the tiresome old Enchanter, whom she detested, he could not help seeing that he failed to please her, and then he began to suspect very strongly that she must love someone else, and that somebody besides Melinette was responsible for all th
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Prince Narcissus and the Princess Potentilla, sentence 97

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But, in spite of Potentilla’s efforts to behave politely to the tiresome old Enchanter, whom she detested, he could not help seeing that he failed to please her, and then he began to suspect very strongly that she must love someone else, and that somebody besides Melinette was responsible for all the festivities he had witnessed.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** spite, enchanter, somebody, Melinette · **What happens:** behave, detest, not help, see, fail, not please · **To what, where:** tiresome old Enchanter, spite, someone, festivities, efforts · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (spite, enchanter, somebody, Melinette), 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:pg7277:11:97
# text = But, in spite of Potentilla’s efforts to behave politely to the tiresome old Enchanter, whom she detested, he could not help seeing that he failed to please her, and then he began to suspect very strongly that she must love someone else, and that somebody besides Melinette was responsible for all the festivities he had witnessed.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	spite	spite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	Potentilla	Potentilla	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’s	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	efforts	effort	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	behave	behave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
11	politely	politely	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
14	tiresome	tiresome	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
15	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	Enchanter	Enchanter	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	20	obj	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	detested	detest	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	parataxis	_	_
26	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	25	xcomp	_	_
27	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	failed	fail	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	ccomp	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	please	please	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	_
32	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
35	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	37	advmod	_	_
36	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
37	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	parataxis	_	_
38	to	to	PART	TO	_	39	mark	_	_
39	suspect	suspect	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	37	xcomp	_	_
40	very	very	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	_
41	strongly	strongly	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
42	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	45	mark	_	_
43	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	45	nsubj	_	_
44	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	45	aux	_	_
45	love	love	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	39	advcl	_	_
46	someone	someone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	45	obj	_	_
47	else	else	ADV	RB	_	46	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	52	punct	_	_
49	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	52	cc	_	_
50	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	51	det	_	_
51	somebody	somebody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	52	nsubj	_	_
52	besides	beside	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
53	Melinette	Melinette	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	55	nsubj	_	_
54	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	55	cop	_	_
55	responsible	responsible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	52	ccomp	_	_
56	for	for	ADP	IN	_	59	case	_	_
57	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	59	det:predet	_	_
58	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	59	det	_	_
59	festivities	festivity	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	55	obl	_	_
60	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	62	nsubj	_	_
61	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	62	aux	_	_
62	witnessed	witness	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	59	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
63	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **behave** | to-infinitive | spite of Potentilla's efforts |  |  |  |  | to the tiresome old Enchanter; politely *property* | vn masquerade-29.6-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **detest** | past | spite | the tiresome old Enchanter |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer whom=Stimulus |
| 3 | **not** **help** | could | enchanter |  |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **see** *not said to happen* | gerund | enchanter *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **fail** | past | enchanter |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 6 | **not** **please** | to-infinitive | enchanter *not said here* | spite |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus she=Experiencer |
| 7 | **begin** | past | enchanter |  |  |  | then |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 8 | **suspect** | to-infinitive | enchanter *not said here* |  |  |  |  | strongly *property* | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 9 | **love** | must | spite | someone |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer someone=Stimulus |
| 10 | **beside** | present | somebody |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 11 | **is** | past | Melinette |  |  |  |  | for all festivities; responsible *property* | tree rules |
| 12 | **witness** | past · perfect | enchanter | all festivities *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn captain-29.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent festivity=Beneficiary |
| 13 | **spite** |  |  | Potentilla's efforts |  |  |  |  | nom spite «feeling transitive»: of=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:** «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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