---
title: 'I have been ill--very ill,' replied the fox, 'and what you say is q… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'I have been ill--very ill,' replied the fox, 'and what you say is quite true. Who acts: I, you. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 6, sentence 70

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'I have been ill--very ill,' replied the fox, 'and what you say is quite true.

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**Who acts:** I, you · **What happens:** be, reply, say · **To what, where:** fox · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, you), 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:pg3027:6:70
# text = 'I have been ill--very ill,' replied the fox, 'and what you say is quite true.
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	cop	_	_
5	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	very	very	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
11	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
15	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
17	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	22	nsubj	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	_
20	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
21	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	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 · perfect | I |  |  |  |  | ill *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past |  | the fox |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent fox=Topic |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | true *property* | tree rules |

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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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