---
title: ‘Why the King of the Low Countries!’ replied the man, laughing and s… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Why the King of the Low Countries!’ replied the man, laughing and supposing that he was mad. Who acts: King. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Little Soldier, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Little Soldier, sentence 119

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‘Why the King of the Low Countries!’ replied the man, laughing and supposing that he was mad.

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**Who acts:** King · **What happens:** reply, laugh, suppose, be · **To what, where:** man

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Little Soldier. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg7277:22:119
# text = ‘Why the King of the Low Countries!’ replied the man, laughing and supposing that he was mad.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	Low	low	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	Countries	country	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
11	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	laughing	laugh	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	advcl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	supposing	suppose	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	conj	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
21	mad	mad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | the King of the Low Countries | the man |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent man=Topic |
| 2 | **laugh** | gerund | the King of the Low Countries *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **suppose** | gerund | the King of the Low Countries *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | past | King |  |  |  |  | mad *property* | tree rules |

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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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