---
title: But he controlled himself and said: “Let me be, wife; what ails you? — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But he controlled himself and said: “Let me be, wife; what ails you? Who acts: husband. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 6, sentence 60

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But he controlled himself and said: “Let me be, wife; what ails you?

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**Who acts:** husband · **What happens:** control, say, let, be, ail · **To what, where:** husband, you · **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 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (husband), 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:pg2435:6:60
# text = But he controlled himself and said: “Let me be, wife; what ails you?
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	controlled	control	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	3	obj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	Let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
10	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
15	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	16	nsubj	_	_
16	ails	ail	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
17	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **control** | past | husband | husband |  |  |  |  | vn enforce-63 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | husband *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **let** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | husband |  |  |  | wife *obl* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** *in a quote* | infinitive | husband *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **ail** *in a quote* | present |  | you |  |  |  |  | vn pain-40.8.1 «NP V NP.experiencer»: agent=Patient you=Experiencer |

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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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