---
title: 'It is very painful,' said they, 'but there is no other way that we… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'It is very painful,' said they, 'but there is no other way that we know of. Who acts: pitch, sisters, other way, we. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 26, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/26/134/)

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 26, sentence 134

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'It is very painful,' said they, 'but there is no other way that we know of.

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**Who acts:** pitch, sisters, other way, we · **What happens:** be, say, know · **To what, where:** other way · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 26. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pitch, sisters, other way, we), 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:pg3027:26:134
# text = 'It is very painful,' said they, 'but there is no other way that we know of.
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	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	painful	painful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
11	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	14	expl	_	_
14	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
15	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	17	det	_	_
16	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
18	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	20	obl	_	_
19	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	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 | pitch |  |  |  |  | painful *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | sisters *= sister* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **be** | present | no other way |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **know** | present | we | no other way |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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