---
title: ‘Well,’ said the man, ‘you need not make so much noise about it; I a… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Well,’ said the man, ‘you need not make so much noise about it; I am sure I had much better let a flounder that can talk swim away.’ Who acts: you, I, flounder. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of the Fisherman and His Wife, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Story of the Fisherman and His Wife, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Well,’ said the man, ‘you need not make so much noise about it; I am sure I had much better let a flounder that can talk swim away.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, I, flounder · **What happens:** say, not make, be, have, let, talk · **To what, where:** man, much noise, flounder · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of the Fisherman and His Wife. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, I, flounder), 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:pg7277:54:8
# text = ‘Well,’ said the man, ‘you need not make so much noise about it; I am sure I had much better let a flounder that can talk swim away.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
9	‘	‘	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	need	need	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
14	so	so	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	noise	noise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
17	about	about	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
22	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	_
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	ccomp	_	_
25	much	much	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	24	xcomp	_	_
27	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	flounder	flounder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	32	nsubj	_	_
31	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	talk	talk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	acl:relcl	_	_
33	swim	swim	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	xcomp	_	_
34	away	away	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the man |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent man=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **make** | present | you | much noise |  |  |  | about noise | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent noise=Product |
| 3 | **is** | present | I |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **have** | past | I |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **let** | infinitive | I *not said here* | a flounder |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flounder=Theme |
| 6 | **talk** | can | a flounder |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **swim away** | infinitive | a flounder *not said here* |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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