---
title: ‘A fine day, Prince Milan,’ he said; ‘you’ve kept me waiting a good… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘A fine day, Prince Milan,’ he said; ‘you’ve kept me waiting a good number of years; it was high time for you to come and pay me a visit.’ Who acts: man, you, number. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 2, sentence 40

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘A fine day, Prince Milan,’ he said; ‘you’ve kept me waiting a good number of years; it was high time for you to come and pay me a visit.’

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**Who acts:** man, you, number · **What happens:** say, keep, wait, be, come, pay · **To what, where:** you, good number, high time, visit, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, you, number), 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:pg7277:27:40
# text = ‘A fine day, Prince Milan,’ he said; ‘you’ve kept me waiting a good number of years; it was high time for you to come and pay me a visit.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	Milan	Milan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	’ve	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	kept	keep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	ccomp	_	_
17	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	waiting	wait	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	xcomp	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
27	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
29	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
30	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	acl	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	pay	pay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	conj	_	_
35	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	34	iobj	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	visit	visit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | man |  |  |  | day |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **keep** | present · passive |  | you |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **wait** | gerund | you *not said here* | a good number of years |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is a** | past | number | high time |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **come** | to-infinitive | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **pay** | infinitive | you *not said here* | a visit | me |  |  |  | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient visit=Asset |

<!-- .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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