---
title: In that case he had, by his own folly, in not letting well alone, ru… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In that case he had, by his own folly, in not letting well alone, ruined his life completely. Who acts: shrinking. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 12, sentence 23

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In that case he had, by his own folly, in not letting well alone, ruined his life completely.

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**Who acts:** shrinking · **What happens:** have, not let, ruin · **To what, where:** case, life

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (shrinking), 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:pg2435:12:23
# text = In that case he had, by his own folly, in not letting well alone, ruined his life completely.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	case	case	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	by	by	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
9	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	folly	folly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	letting	let	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
15	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	_
16	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	ruined	ruin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	completely	completely	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | shrinking |  |  | that case |  | by shrinking's own folly | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **let** | gerund | shrinking *not said here* |  |  |  |  | alone *property* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **ruin** | past | shrinking *not said here* | shrinking's life |  |  |  | completely *property* | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Patient |

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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 Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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