---
title: 'I am not a fish at all,' said the new-comer, swallowing a great dea… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'I am not a fish at all,' said the new-comer, swallowing a great deal of salt water as she spoke; for you cannot learn how to be a proper fish all in a moment. ' Who acts: I, power, you. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 25, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 25, sentence 23

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
'I am not a fish at all,' said the new-comer, swallowing a great deal of salt water as she spoke; for you cannot learn how to be a proper fish all in a moment. '

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, power, you · **What happens:** not be, say, swallow, speak, not learn, be · **To what, where:** fish, all, new comer, great deal, proper fish, salt water · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 25. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, power, you), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3027:25:23
# text = 'I am not a fish at all,' said the new-comer, swallowing a great deal of salt water as she spoke; for you cannot learn how to be a proper fish all in a moment. '
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	ccomp	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	comer	comer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	swallowing	swallow	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	deal	deal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	salt	salt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
24	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
25	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
28	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
29	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
30	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	32	advmod	_	_
32	learn	learn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	parataxis	_	_
33	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	32	ccomp	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	38	mark	_	_
35	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	38	cop	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	proper	proper	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
39	all	all	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	_
40	in	in	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	32	punct	_	_
44	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | present | I | a fish |  | all |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the new comer |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent comer=Topic |
| 3 | **swallow** | gerund |  | a great deal of salt water |  |  |  |  | vn gobble-39.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent deal=Patient |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | power |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **not** **learn** | can | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | a proper fish |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **deal** |  |  | salt water |  |  |  |  | nom deal «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 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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