---
title: He is very sly and will no doubt disguise himself, and pretend to be… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He is very sly and will no doubt disguise himself, and pretend to be a friend, but you must promise me not to let him enter your houses on any pretext whatever.’ Who acts: fox, you. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Little Pigs, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Three Little Pigs, sentence 31

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He is very sly and will no doubt disguise himself, and pretend to be a friend, but you must promise me not to let him enter your houses on any pretext whatever.’

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**Who acts:** fox, you · **What happens:** be, pretend, promise, not let, enter · **To what, where:** friend, me, fox, houses, pretext

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (fox, 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:pg7277:13:31
# text = He is very sly and will no doubt disguise himself, and pretend to be a friend, but you must promise me not to let him enter your houses on any pretext whatever.’
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	very	very	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	sly	sly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
6	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
7	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	9	det	_	_
8	doubt	doubt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	disguise	disguise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
10	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	9	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	pretend	pretend	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
15	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	cop	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	promise	promise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
23	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	iobj	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	enter	enter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
29	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	houses	house	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obj	_	_
31	on	on	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	33	det	_	_
33	pretext	pretext	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
34	whatever	whatever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	33	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | fox |  |  |  |  | sly *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **pretend** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | a friend |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **promise** *speech: promise* | must | you |  | me |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V NP that S»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **not** **let** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | fox |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **enter** | infinitive | fox *not said here* | your houses |  | any pretext |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme house=Destination |

<!-- .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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