---
title: “What!” said he, “do you mean to tell me that there is any animal in… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: “What!” said he, “do you mean to tell me that there is any animal in this country stronger and more powerful than I am? Who acts: you. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Hare and the Lions., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# Folk tales from Tibet, The Hare and the Lions., sentence 9

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“What!” said he, “do you mean to tell me that there is any animal in this country stronger and more powerful than I am?

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** say, mean, tell, be · **To what, where:** animal, me, country · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Hare and the Lions.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75000:10:9
# text = “What!” said he, “do you mean to tell me that there is any animal in this country stronger and more powerful than I am?
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	5	nsubj:outer	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	mean	mean	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	iobj	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	17	expl	_	_
17	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
18	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	19	det	_	_
19	animal	animal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	det	_	_
22	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
23	stronger	strong	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	13	ccomp	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	26	advmod	_	_
26	powerful	powerful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	conj	_	_
27	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
28	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: ask* | past |  |  |  |  |  | What *nsubj:outer*; Lion *nsubj* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **mean** *in a quote* | present · do-support | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | any animal | me | this country |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient animal=Topic |
| 4 | **be** *in a quote* | present | you *not said here* |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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:** «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, Project Gutenberg book 75000 (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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