---
title: 'I can't think what is the matter with it,' the duck grumbled to her… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'I can't think what is the matter with it,' the duck grumbled to her neighbour who had called in to pay her a visit. ' Who acts: I, matter, duck. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 8, sentence 76

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'I can't think what is the matter with it,' the duck grumbled to her neighbour who had called in to pay her a visit. '

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**Who acts:** I, matter, duck · **What happens:** not think, be, grumble, call in, pay · **To what, where:** neighbour, duck

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, matter, duck), 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:pg3027:8:76
# text = 'I can't think what is the matter with it,' the duck grumbled to her neighbour who had called in to pay her a visit. '
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	obj	_	_
7	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	duck	duck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	grumbled	grumble	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	neighbour	neighbour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj:pass	_	_
21	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	acl:relcl	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	RP	_	22	compound:prt	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	pay	pay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	advcl	_	_
26	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	visit	visit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
30	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **think** *speech: other* | can | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | present | the matter with cracking |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **grumble** *speech: other* | past | the duck |  | duck's neighbour |  |  |  | vn complain-37.8 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to neighbour=Recipient |
| 4 | **call in** *speech: assert* | past · perfect · passive |  | duck's neighbour |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 5 | **pay** | to-infinitive |  |  | duck |  |  |  | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient visit=Asset |

<!-- .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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