---
title: ‘We must all three station ourselves at different intervals along th… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘We must all three station ourselves at different intervals along the old man’s homeward way, and must each in his turn declare that the mule he has bought is a donkey. Who acts: mule. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 1, sentence 8

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‘We must all three station ourselves at different intervals along the old man’s homeward way, and must each in his turn declare that the mule he has bought is a donkey.

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**Who acts:** mule · **What happens:** declare, buy, be · **To what, where:** turn, mule, 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 (mule), 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:pg7277:26:8
# text = ‘We must all three station ourselves at different intervals along the old man’s homeward way, and must each in his turn declare that the mule he has bought is a donkey.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	all	all	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
6	station	station	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	ourselves	ourselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	6	obj	_	_
8	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	different	different	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	intervals	interval	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
11	along	along	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	’s	's	PART	POS	_	14	case	_	_
16	homeward	homeward	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
20	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
21	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	25	advmod	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	turn	turn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
25	declare	declare	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	mule	mule	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	bought	buy	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	28	acl:relcl	_	_
32	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	donkey	donkey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **declare** *speech: other* | must |  |  |  | man's turn |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **buy** | present · perfect | mule | the mule *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mule=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** | present | the mule | a donkey |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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