---
title: And the moon said no, but that the sun travelled farther than he did… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And the moon said no, but that the sun travelled farther than he did, and that the young man had better go and ask him. Who acts: moon, sun, young man. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Snuff-box, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Snuff-box, sentence 46

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the moon said no, but that the sun travelled farther than he did, and that the young man had better go and ask him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** moon, sun, young man · **What happens:** say, travel, do, have, go, ask · **To what, where:** man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Snuff-box. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (moon, sun, young man), 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:pg7277:20:46
# text = And the moon said no, but that the sun travelled farther than he did, and that the young man had better go and ask him.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	moon	moon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	no	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	travelled	travel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
12	farther	far	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	11	advmod	_	_
13	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
23	better	well	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	22	advmod	_	_
24	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	conj	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the moon |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent no=Topic |
| 2 | **travel** | past | the sun |  |  |  |  | far *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **do** | past | sun |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **have** | past | the young man |  |  |  |  | well *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **go** | infinitive | the young man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **ask** *speech: ask* | infinitive | the young man *not said here* |  | man |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |

<!-- .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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