---
title: ‘I’m speaking in sober earnest,’ said Simon; ‘it wouldn’t occur to m… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I’m speaking in sober earnest,’ said Simon; ‘it wouldn’t occur to me to make a joke of it.’ Who acts: I, Simon, fool. 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 40

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘I’m speaking in sober earnest,’ said Simon; ‘it wouldn’t occur to me to make a joke of it.’

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**Who acts:** I, Simon, fool · **What happens:** speak, say, not occur, make, joke · **To what, where:** me, joke · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (I, Simon, fool), 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:pg7277:26:40
# text = ‘I’m speaking in sober earnest,’ said Simon; ‘it wouldn’t occur to me to make a joke of it.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	’m	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	ccomp	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	sober	sober	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	obl	_	_
7	earnest	earn	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	Simon	Simon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	occur	occur	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	joke	joke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | present · progressive | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Simon |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **occur** | would | fool |  | me |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **make** | to-infinitive | fool *not said here* | a joke of fool |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset joke=Product |
| 5 | **joke** |  | fool |  |  |  |  |  | nom joke «communication intransitive»: of=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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