---
title: 'It is hardly worth doing that,' answered Jack; 'for I picked up the… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'It is hardly worth doing that,' answered Jack; 'for I picked up the pieces and ate them myself.' Who acts: It, I. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 20, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 20, sentence 1

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'It is hardly worth doing that,' answered Jack; 'for I picked up the pieces and ate them myself.'

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**Who acts:** It, I · **What happens:** be, do, answer, pick up, eat · **To what, where:** that, Jack, pieces

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, I), 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:pg3027:20:1
# text = 'It is hardly worth doing that,' answered Jack; 'for I picked up the pieces and ate them myself.'
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	worth	worth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	doing	do	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	csubj	_	_
7	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
10	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
11	Jack	Jack	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
13	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	picked	pick	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
17	up	up	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	21	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | It |  |  |  |  | hardly, worth *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **do** | gerund |  | that |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Eventuality |
| 3 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past |  |  | Jack |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent jack=Eventuality |
| 4 | **pick up** | past | I | the pieces |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent piece=Topic |
| 5 | **eat** | past | I *not said here* | pieces *= piece* |  |  |  | myself *obl:unmarked* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=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 Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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