---
title: 'It is not an easy task; but I will try to finish it in a fortnight,… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'It is not an easy task; but I will try to finish it in a fortnight,' replied the youth. Who acts: ointment, I, easy task. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 38, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 38, sentence 18

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'It is not an easy task; but I will try to finish it in a fortnight,' replied the youth.

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**Who acts:** ointment, I, easy task · **What happens:** not be, try, finish, reply · **To what, where:** easy task, task, youth

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 38. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ointment, I, easy task), 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:pg3027:38:18
# text = 'It is not an easy task; but I will try to finish it in a fortnight,' replied the youth.
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
5	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	task	task	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	finish	finish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	fortnight	fortnight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
21	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | present | ointment | a easy task |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **try** | future | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **finish** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | task |  |  | fortnight |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality it=Eventuality |
| 4 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | a easy task | the youth |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent youth=Topic |

<!-- .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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