---
title: Then his heart sank within him; what should he do in this strange pl… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then his heart sank within him; what should he do in this strange place if nobody could understand anything? he said. Who acts: heart, nobody. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 19, sentence 5

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Then his heart sank within him; what should he do in this strange place if nobody could understand anything? he said.

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**Who acts:** heart, nobody · **What happens:** sink, do, understand, say · **To what, where:** strange place, anything · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (heart, nobody), 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:pg2435:19:5
# text = Then his heart sank within him; what should he do in this strange place if nobody could understand anything? he said.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	sank	sink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	advcl	_	_
5	within	within	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	11	obj	_	_
9	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	15	det	_	_
14	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
16	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	19	nsubj	_	_
18	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
20	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sink** | past | his heart |  |  |  | then | within him *= he* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **do** | should | heart |  |  | this strange place |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 3 | **understand** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | nobody | anything |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer anything=Stimulus |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | heart |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: 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 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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