---
title: I ride a snail!’ cried the Prince; ‘you are laughing at me, and besi… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: I ride a snail!’ cried the Prince; ‘you are laughing at me, and beside we should not get there for a year.’ Who acts: I, you, we. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/37/55/)

<!-- 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/pg7277/37/) / 55

# The Green Fairy Book, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 2, sentence 55

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I ride a snail!’ cried the Prince; ‘you are laughing at me, and beside we should not get there for a year.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, you, we · **What happens:** ride, cry, laugh, not get · **To what, where:** snail, Prince

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, 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 (I, 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:pg7277:37:55
# text = I ride a snail!’ cried the Prince; ‘you are laughing at me, and beside we should not get there for a year.’
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	ride	ride	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	snail	snail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
7	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
11	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	laughing	laugh	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
19	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
20	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
23	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
24	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	23	advmod	_	_
25	for	for	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ride** | present | I | a snail |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent snail=Theme |
| 2 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | I *not said here* | the Prince |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent prince=Topic |
| 3 | **laugh** | present · progressive | you |  |  |  |  | at me | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **not** **get** | should | we |  |  | there | year |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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 54](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/37/54/)
- next →: [sentence 56](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/37/56/)
- ↑ back to [Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/37/)