---
title: ‘You mean that for a joke,’ said the old woman, as gently as ever, ‘… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘You mean that for a joke,’ said the old woman, as gently as ever, ‘but that is really my name, and some day you will know more about me.’ Who acts: You, old woman, that, day. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 1, with its dependency tre
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/36/50/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Green Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/) / [Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/36/) / 50

# The Green Fairy Book, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 1, sentence 50

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘You mean that for a joke,’ said the old woman, as gently as ever, ‘but that is really my name, and some day you will know more about me.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** You, old woman, that, day · **What happens:** mean, say, be, know · **To what, where:** name, more · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, 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, old woman, that, day), 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:pg7277:36:50
# text = ‘You mean that for a joke,’ said the old woman, as gently as ever, ‘but that is really my name, and some day you will know more about me.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	mean	mean	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	joke	joke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	as	as	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	gently	gently	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
17	as	as	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
20	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
22	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	26	nsubj	_	_
23	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
24	really	really	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
25	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
29	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	30	det	_	_
30	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
31	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
32	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
34	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	33	obj	_	_
35	about	about	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mean** | present | You |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the old woman |  |  |  |  | for a joke; gently *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** | present | that | my name |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **know** | future | some day | more |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer more=Stimulus |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 49](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/36/49/)
- next →: [sentence 51](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/36/51/)
- ↑ back to [Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/36/)