---
title: ‘Oh, you simpleton!’ cried Nina; ‘didn’t you see that they were only… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Oh, you simpleton!’ cried Nina; ‘didn’t you see that they were only playing you a trick? Who acts: you, simpleton, rascals. 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 45

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‘Oh, you simpleton!’ cried Nina; ‘didn’t you see that they were only playing you a trick?

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**Who acts:** you, simpleton, rascals · **What happens:** simpleton, cry, not do, see, play · **To what, where:** trick, you

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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 (you, simpleton, rascals), 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:pg7277:26:45
# text = ‘Oh, you simpleton!’ cried Nina; ‘didn’t you see that they were only playing you a trick?
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	simpleton	simpleton	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	Nina	Nina	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
11	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
14	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	see	see	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	only	only	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	trick	trick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **simpleton** |  | you |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | simpleton |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **do** | past | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **see** | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **play** | past · progressive | rascals *= rascal* | a trick | you |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: agent=Agent you=Beneficiary trick=Theme |

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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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