---
title: He carefully read the two mottoes and said: “The last few days have… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He carefully read the two mottoes and said: “The last few days have shown me how uncertain is happiness and how easily riches vanish away. Who acts: king, riches. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 35, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 35, sentence 89

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He carefully read the two mottoes and said: “The last few days have shown me how uncertain is happiness and how easily riches vanish away.

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**Who acts:** king, riches · **What happens:** read, say, show, be, vanish away · **To what, where:** two mottoes, last few days, uncertain happiness · **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 35. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, riches), 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:pg2435:35:89
# text = He carefully read the two mottoes and said: “The last few days have shown me how uncertain is happiness and how easily riches vanish away.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	carefully	carefully	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	read	read	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
6	mottoes	motto	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
12	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
13	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	shown	show	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	ccomp	_	_
17	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	_
19	uncertain	uncertain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
20	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
21	happiness	happiness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl:unmarked	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
23	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	24	advmod	_	_
24	easily	easily	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
25	riches	rich	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
26	vanish	vanish	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
27	away	away	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **read** | past | king | the two mottoes |  |  |  | carefully *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent motto=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **show** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive |  | the last few days |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient i=Topic |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | uncertain happiness |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **vanish away** *in a quote* | present | riches |  |  |  |  | away, easily *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «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:** «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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