---
title: Mannikin was quick enough to gather from this speech that to amuse a… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Mannikin was quick enough to gather from this speech that to amuse and interest the Princess would be a far surer way of gaining her favour than to add himself to the list of those who continually teased her about that mysterious thing called ‘love’ which she was so incapable of comprehending. Who a
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Heart of Ice, part 3, sentence 33

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Mannikin was quick enough to gather from this speech that to amuse and interest the Princess would be a far surer way of gaining her favour than to add himself to the list of those who continually teased her about that mysterious thing called ‘love’ which she was so incapable of comprehending.

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**Who acts:** Mannikin, speech, Princess, surer way, mysterious thing · **What happens:** be, gather, amuse, gain, add, tease · **To what, where:** speech, surer way, favour, Mannikin, Princess, love · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Heart of Ice, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Mannikin, speech, Princess, surer way), 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:pg7277:16:33
# text = Mannikin was quick enough to gather from this speech that to amuse and interest the Princess would be a far surer way of gaining her favour than to add himself to the list of those who continually teased her about that mysterious thing called ‘love’ which she was so incapable of comprehending.
1	Mannikin	Mannikin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	quick	quick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	gather	gather	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
7	from	from	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
9	speech	speech	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	amuse	amuse	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	acl:relcl	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	interest	interest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
16	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
17	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	cop	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
20	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	21	advmod	_	_
21	surer	sure	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	22	amod	_	_
22	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl:unmarked	_	_
23	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
24	gaining	gain	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	22	acl	_	_
25	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	favour	favour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
27	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	add	add	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
30	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	29	obj	_	_
31	to	to	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	list	list	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	those	that	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	33	nmod	_	_
36	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	38	nsubj	_	_
37	continually	continually	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
38	teased	tease	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	acl:relcl	_	_
39	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	obj	_	_
40	about	about	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
41	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	43	det	_	_
42	mysterious	mysterious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	_
43	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	_
44	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	43	acl	_	_
45	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	46	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	love	love	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	46	punct	_	_
48	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	52	nsubj	_	_
49	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	52	nsubj	_	_
50	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	52	cop	_	_
51	so	so	ADV	RB	_	52	advmod	_	_
52	incapable	incapable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	parataxis	_	_
53	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	54	mark	_	_
54	comprehending	comprehend	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	52	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Mannikin |  |  |  |  | enough, quick *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **gather** | to-infinitive | Mannikin *not said here* |  |  | this speech |  |  | vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent from speech=Source |
| 3 | **amuse** | to-infinitive | this speech |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is a** | would | Princess | the surer way |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **gain** | gerund | the surer way *not said here* | Princess's favour |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent favour=Theme |
| 6 | **add** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | this speech *not said here* | Mannikin |  |  |  | to the list of those | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent himself=Patient to list=Co-Patient |
| 7 | **tease** | past |  | Princess |  |  |  | about that mysterious thing; continually *property* | vn bully-59.5 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Patient |
| 8 | **call** | participle | that mysterious thing *not said here* | love |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 9 | **is** | past | that mysterious thing |  |  |  |  | incapable *property* | tree rules |
| 10 | **comprehend** | gerund | that mysterious thing *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 11 | **favour** |  | Princess |  |  |  |  |  | nom favour «feeling transitive»: poss=agent |
| 12 | **list** |  |  | those |  |  |  |  | nom list «communication 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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