---
title: ‘Because it seems to me you’ve got hold of a donkey, and not of a mu… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Because it seems to me you’ve got hold of a donkey, and not of a mule.’ Who acts: it, you. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 1, sentence 21

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‘Because it seems to me you’ve got hold of a donkey, and not of a mule.’

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**Who acts:** it, you · **What happens:** seem, get, hold · **To what, where:** me, hold, donkey

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (it, you), 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:pg7277:26:21
# text = ‘Because it seems to me you’ve got hold of a donkey, and not of a mule.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	seems	seem	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’ve	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	got	get	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	parataxis	_	_
10	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	donkey	donkey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	mule	mule	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | present | it |  | me |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **get** | present · perfect | you | hold of a donkey |  |  |  | of a mule | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer hold=Stimulus |
| 3 | **hold** |  |  | a donkey |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act transitive»: of=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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