---
title: 'I don't believe that there is anything better,' answered Jack. — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'I don't believe that there is anything better,' answered Jack. Who acts: I, anything. 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 55

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'I don't believe that there is anything better,' answered Jack.

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**Who acts:** I, anything · **What happens:** not believe, be, answer · **To what, where:** Jack · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (I, anything), 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:pg3027:20:55
# text = 'I don't believe that there is anything better,' answered Jack.
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	8	expl	_	_
8	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
9	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	8	nsubj	_	_
10	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	9	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
13	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
14	Jack	Jack	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **believe** | present · do-support | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **be** | present | anything |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past |  |  | Jack |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent jack=Eventuality |

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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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