---
title: And poor Whitey began to whine and to whimper, and to wish that she… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And poor Whitey began to whine and to whimper, and to wish that she had not been such a greedy little pig, and had chosen a more solid material than cabbages for her house. Who acts: poor Whitey, Whitey. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Little Pigs, with its dependency 
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Three Little Pigs, sentence 53

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And poor Whitey began to whine and to whimper, and to wish that she had not been such a greedy little pig, and had chosen a more solid material than cabbages for her house.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** poor Whitey, Whitey · **What happens:** begin, whine, wish, have, not be, choose · **To what, where:** greedy little pig, solid material · **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 (poor Whitey, Whitey), 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:pg7277:13:53
# text = And poor Whitey began to whine and to whimper, and to wish that she had not been such a greedy little pig, and had chosen a more solid material than cabbages for her house.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	Whitey	Whitey	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	whine	whine	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	whimper	whimper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	wish	wish	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	ccomp	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
18	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	cop	_	_
19	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	23	det:predet	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
21	greedy	greedy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
22	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	pig	pig	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	chosen	choose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	parataxis	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
29	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	30	advmod	_	_
30	solid	solid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	material	material	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
32	than	than	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	cabbages	cabbage	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nmod	_	_
34	for	for	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | poor Whitey |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **whine** | to-infinitive | poor Whitey *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **wish** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **have** | past | Whitey |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **not** **is a** | participle |  | such greedy little pig |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **choose** | past · perfect |  | a solid material |  |  |  | than cabbages for Whitey's house | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent material=Theme |

<!-- .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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