---
title: ‘After all,’ he said to himself, ‘what does it matter telling her th… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘After all,’ he said to himself, ‘what does it matter telling her the secret, as long as I don’t give her the cloak.’ Who acts: soldier, I. 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 231

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘After all,’ he said to himself, ‘what does it matter telling her the secret, as long as I don’t give her the cloak.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** soldier, I · **What happens:** say, matter, tell, not give · **To what, where:** soldier, voice, secret, Ludovine, cloak · **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 (soldier, I), 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:pg7277:22:231
# text = ‘After all,’ he said to himself, ‘what does it matter telling her the secret, as long as I don’t give her the cloak.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	After	after	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	15	obj	_	_
13	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	expl	_	_
15	matter	matter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
16	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	xcomp	_	_
17	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	iobj	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	secret	secret	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	as	as	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	15	advmod	_	_
23	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
24	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
27	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	advcl	_	_
28	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	iobj	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	cloak	cloak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | soldier |  | soldier |  | after all |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to himself=Recipient |
| 2 | **matter** | present · do-support | soldier *not said here* | voice |  |  |  | long *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | gerund | soldier *not said here* | the secret | Ludovine |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient secret=Topic |
| 4 | **not** **give** | present · do-support | I | the cloak | Ludovine |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient cloak=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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