---
title: When the fox perceived this, he said: ‘If you only understood, as I… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When the fox perceived this, he said: ‘If you only understood, as I do, what these little birds are saying, your pleasure would be even greater.’ Who acts: fox, you, I, little birds. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Snake, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Enchanted Snake, sentence 48

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When the fox perceived this, he said: ‘If you only understood, as I do, what these little birds are saying, your pleasure would be even greater.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** fox, you, I, little birds, pleasure, your · **What happens:** perceive, say, understand, do, be, please · **To what, where:** this · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Snake. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fox, you, I, little birds), 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:pg7277:25:48
# text = When the fox perceived this, he said: ‘If you only understood, as I do, what these little birds are saying, your pleasure would be even greater.’
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	perceived	perceive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
5	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
10	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
12	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	only	only	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	understood	understand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	25	obj	_	_
21	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	23	det	_	_
22	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nsubj	_	_
24	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
27	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
29	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
30	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	cop	_	_
31	even	even	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
32	greater	great	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	25	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **perceive** | past | the fox | this |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer this=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | fox |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **understand** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **do** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | present · progressive | this little birds |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic |
| 6 | **is** | would | your pleasure |  |  |  |  | great *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **please** |  | your |  |  |  |  |  | nom pleasure «feeling transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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