---
title: ‘Does she really mean to marry me,’ he thought to himself, ‘or is sh… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Does she really mean to marry me,’ he thought to himself, ‘or is she only trying to deceive me again?’ Who acts: cunning, soldier. 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 229

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‘Does she really mean to marry me,’ he thought to himself, ‘or is she only trying to deceive me again?’

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**Who acts:** cunning, soldier · **What happens:** mean, marry, think, try, deceive · **To what, where:** me, soldier · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (cunning, soldier), 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:pg7277:22:229
# text = ‘Does she really mean to marry me,’ he thought to himself, ‘or is she only trying to deceive me again?’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	really	really	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	mean	mean	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	marry	marry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	‘	‘	SYM	SYM	_	17	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
18	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	only	only	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	trying	try	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	conj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	deceive	deceive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	again	again	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mean** | present · do-support | cunning |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **marry** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | cunning *not said here* | me |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Patient |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past | soldier |  | soldier |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **try** | present · progressive | cunning |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **deceive** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | cunning *not said here* | me |  |  | again |  | vn trick-59.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Patient |

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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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