---
title: When they got home they said to their wives, ‘You needn’t begin to c… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When they got home they said to their wives, ‘You needn’t begin to cook the dinner to-morrow till we send the provisions home.’ Who acts: goats, You, we. 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 69

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When they got home they said to their wives, ‘You needn’t begin to cook the dinner to-morrow till we send the provisions home.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** goats, You, we · **What happens:** get, say, not begin, not cook, send · **To what, where:** dinner, provisions · **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 (goats, You, we), 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:pg7277:26:69
# text = When they got home they said to their wives, ‘You needn’t begin to cook the dinner to-morrow till we send the provisions home.’
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
4	home	home	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	wives	wife	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	need	need	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	begin	begin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	cook	cook	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	morrow	morrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
23	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
24	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	send	send	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	provisions	provision	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	_
28	home	home	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **get** | past | goats *= goat* |  |  |  |  | home *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | goats *= goat* |  |  |  |  | to goats's wives | vn indicate-78-1 «NP V PP.recipient that S»: agent=Pivot to wife=Experiencer clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **begin** | present | You |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **not** **cook** | to-infinitive | You *not said here* | the dinner |  |  |  | to morrow *result* | vn cooking-45.3 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent dinner=Patient to morrow=Result |
| 5 | **send** | present | we | the provisions |  |  |  | home *property* | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent provision=Theme |

<!-- .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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