---
title: ‘Oh, my poor friend,’ cried the rascal, ‘don’t you see that is a don… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Oh, my poor friend,’ cried the rascal, ‘don’t you see that is a donkey and not a mule? you have been taken in by some wretched cheats.’ Who acts: poor friend, you, that, wretched cheats. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/26/41/)

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 1, sentence 41

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‘Oh, my poor friend,’ cried the rascal, ‘don’t you see that is a donkey and not a mule? you have been taken in by some wretched cheats.’

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**Who acts:** poor friend, you, that, wretched cheats · **What happens:** cry, not do, see, be, take in · **To what, where:** rascal, donkey, you · **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 (poor friend, you, that, wretched cheats), 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:pg7277:26:41
# text = ‘Oh, my poor friend,’ cried the rascal, ‘don’t you see that is a donkey and not a mule? you have been taken in by some wretched cheats.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
5	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
9	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	rascal	rascal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
16	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	see	see	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	parataxis	_	_
18	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	nsubj	_	_
19	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	donkey	donkey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	ccomp	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	mule	mule	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
27	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
28	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	30	aux:pass	_	_
30	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	parataxis	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	RP	_	30	compound:prt	_	_
32	by	by	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	35	det	_	_
34	wretched	wretched	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	cheats	cheat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | my poor friend | the rascal |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rascal=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **do** | infinitive | my poor friend *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **see** | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is a** | present | that | a donkey and a mule |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **take in** | present · perfect · passive | some wretched cheats | you |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument subject=Destination |

<!-- .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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