---
title: ‘As if it was not enough,’ said he, ‘that a woman should trick me, b… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘As if it was not enough,’ said he, ‘that a woman should trick me, but the devil must mix himself up in it and lend me his horns. Who acts: courage, John, woman, devil. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Little Soldier, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Little Soldier, sentence 253

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘As if it was not enough,’ said he, ‘that a woman should trick me, but the devil must mix himself up in it and lend me his horns.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** courage, John, woman, devil · **What happens:** not be, say, trick, mix up, lend · **To what, where:** me, John, courage, horns · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (courage, John, woman, devil), 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:pg7277:22:253
# text = ‘As if it was not enough,’ said he, ‘that a woman should trick me, but the devil must mix himself up in it and lend me his horns.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
3	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	enough	enough	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
17	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	trick	trick	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
19	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	devil	devil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
24	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	mix	mix	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	parataxis	_	_
26	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	25	obj	_	_
27	up	up	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obl	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	lend	lend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	conj	_	_
32	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	31	iobj	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	horns	horn	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | courage |  |  |  |  | enough *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | John |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **trick** | should | a woman | me |  |  |  |  | vn trick-59.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Patient |
| 4 | **mix up** | must | the devil | John |  | courage |  |  | vn mix-22.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Patient |
| 5 | **lend** | infinitive | the devil *not said here* | John's horns | me |  |  |  | vn give-13.1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient horn=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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