---
title: No one could call Labakan either stupid or lazy, for he could work e… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: No one could call Labakan either stupid or lazy, for he could work extremely well and quickly—when he chose; but there was something not altogether right about him. Who acts: one, Labakan, something. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 34, with its dep
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 34, sentence 25

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
No one could call Labakan either stupid or lazy, for he could work extremely well and quickly—when he chose; but there was something not altogether right about him.

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**Who acts:** one, Labakan, something · **What happens:** call, work, choose, be · **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 34. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (one, Labakan, something), 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:pg2435:34:25
# text = No one could call Labakan either stupid or lazy, for he could work extremely well and quickly—when he chose; but there was something not altogether right about him.
1	No	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	2	det	_	_
2	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	Labakan	Labakan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	either	either	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc:preconj	_	_
7	stupid	stupid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	_
8	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	lazy	lazy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	work	work	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
15	extremely	extremely	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	14	advmod	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	chose	choose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
24	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	26	expl	_	_
26	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
27	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	26	nsubj	_	_
28	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
29	altogether	altogether	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
31	about	about	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **call** *speech: assert* | could | no one |  |  |  |  | stupid *property* | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **work** | could | Labakan |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **choose** | past | Labakan |  |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **be** | past | something |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «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 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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