---
title: He began speaking to her in the same feigned gentle voice in which h… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He began speaking to her in the same feigned gentle voice in which he had spoken to Browny; but it frightened her very much when he said: Who acts: fox, same, den. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Little Pigs, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Three Little Pigs, sentence 48

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He began speaking to her in the same feigned gentle voice in which he had spoken to Browny; but it frightened her very much when he said:

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** fox, same, den · **What happens:** begin, speak, feign, frighten, say · **To what, where:** Whitey, gentle voice, Browny · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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, same, den), 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:pg7277:13:48
# text = He began speaking to her in the same feigned gentle voice in which he had spoken to Browny; but it frightened her very much when he said:
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	xcomp	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
6	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	nsubj	_	_
9	feigned	feign	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
10	gentle	gentle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	obl	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	spoken	speak	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	acl:relcl	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	Browny	Browny	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
23	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	very	very	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	much	much	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
26	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	28	advmod	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | fox |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | gerund | fox *not said here* |  | Whitey |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to she=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **feign** | past | the same | gentle voice |  |  |  |  | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent voice=Patient |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* | past · perfect | fox |  | Browny | gentle voice |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to browny=Co-Agent |
| 5 | **frighten** | past | den | Whitey |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus she=Experiencer |
| 6 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | fox |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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