---
title: But Susan replied, ‘I always told you our old dog was the best dog i… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But Susan replied, ‘I always told you our old dog was the best dog in the world--but as usual you thought you knew so much better. Who acts: Susan, I, old dog, you. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The War of the Wolf and the Fox, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The War of the Wolf and the Fox, sentence 63

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But Susan replied, ‘I always told you our old dog was the best dog in the world--but as usual you thought you knew so much better.

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**Who acts:** Susan, I, old dog, you · **What happens:** reply, tell, be, think, know · **To what, where:** you, best dog, world · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The War of the Wolf and the Fox. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Susan, I, old dog, you), 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:pg7277:53:63
# text = But Susan replied, ‘I always told you our old dog was the best dog in the world--but as usual you thought you knew so much better.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Susan	Susan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	8	advmod	_	_
8	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
9	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	iobj	_	_
10	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
11	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	16	amod	_	_
16	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	ccomp	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
22	as	as	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	usual	usual	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	obl	_	_
24	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
26	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	ccomp	_	_
28	so	so	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	much	much	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	27	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | Susan |  |  |  |  |  | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | I |  | you |  |  | always *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |
| 3 | **is a** | past | our old dog | the best dog |  | the world |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | past | you |  |  |  |  | as usual | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **know** | past | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: 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.

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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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