---
title: ‘Show them to someone who understands such things, Madam,’ answered… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Show them to someone who understands such things, Madam,’ answered the Queen; ‘after that we can decide upon the price.’ Who acts: you, we. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Blue Bird, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Blue Bird, part 4, sentence 3

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‘Show them to someone who understands such things, Madam,’ answered the Queen; ‘after that we can decide upon the price.’

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**Who acts:** you, we · **What happens:** show, understand, answer, decide · **To what, where:** pieces, someone, such things, Queen

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Blue Bird, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, we), 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:pg7277:5:3
# text = ‘Show them to someone who understands such things, Madam,’ answered the Queen; ‘after that we can decide upon the price.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Show	show	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	someone	someone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	2	obl	_	_
6	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
7	understands	understand	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
8	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	Madam	Madam	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
14	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	_
18	‘	‘	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	after	after	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	decide	decide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
24	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	price	price	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **show** | imperative | you *not said here* | pieces *= piece* | someone |  |  | ‘ *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Topic to someone=Recipient |
| 2 | **understand** | present |  | such things |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer thing=Stimulus |
| 3 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | you *not said here* |  | the Queen |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent queen=Eventuality |
| 4 | **decide** | can | we |  |  |  |  | upon the price | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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