---
title: He was much cleverer than Browny and Whitey, and his mother’s heart… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He was much cleverer than Browny and Whitey, and his mother’s heart used to swell with pride when she heard the farmer’s friends say to each other that some day the little black fellow would be a prize pig. Who acts: Blacky, heart, friends, day. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, T
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Three Little Pigs, sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He was much cleverer than Browny and Whitey, and his mother’s heart used to swell with pride when she heard the farmer’s friends say to each other that some day the little black fellow would be a prize pig.

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**Who acts:** Blacky, heart, friends, day · **What happens:** be, use, swell, hear, say · **To what, where:** each, prize pig · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Little Pigs. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Blacky, heart, friends, day), 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:pg7277:13:14
# text = He was much cleverer than Browny and Whitey, and his mother’s heart used to swell with pride when she heard the farmer’s friends say to each other that some day the little black fellow would be a prize pig.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	much	much	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	cleverer	clever	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
5	than	than	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	Browny	Browny	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	Whitey	Whitey	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	’s	's	PART	POS	_	12	case	_	_
14	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	swell	swell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	pride	pride	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
20	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
21	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	farmer	farmer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	’s	's	PART	POS	_	24	case	_	_
26	friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nsubj	_	_
27	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	parataxis	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	27	obl	_	_
30	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	fixed	_	_
31	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	42	mark	_	_
32	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	33	det	_	_
33	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nsubj	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
35	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
36	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	fellow	fellow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nsubj	_	_
38	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	42	aux	_	_
39	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	42	cop	_	_
40	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
41	prize	prize	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	compound	_	_
42	pig	pig	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Blacky |  |  |  |  | than Browny and Whitey; clever *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **use** | past | Blacky's mother's heart |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **swell** | to-infinitive | Blacky's mother's heart *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with pride | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 4 | **hear** | past | heart |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | the farmer's friends |  | each |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to each=Recipient |
| 6 | **is a** | would | some day | a prize pig |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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