---
title: “Let us try,” said he in a careless manner, “which of us can lie bur… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Let us try,” said he in a careless manner, “which of us can lie buried in the ground during seven years.” Who acts: us, man. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2, sentence 74

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Let us try,” said he in a careless manner, “which of us can lie buried in the ground during seven years.”

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**Who acts:** us, man · **What happens:** let, try, say, lie, bury · **To what, where:** us, careless manner, ground · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (us, man), 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:pg3282:35:74
# text = “Let us try,” said he in a careless manner, “which of us can lie buried in the ground during seven years.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
3	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	careless	careless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	manner	manner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	_
18	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	lie	lie	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
20	buried	bury	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	xcomp	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	during	during	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	26	nummod	_	_
26	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **let** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | us |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **try** *in a quote* | infinitive | us *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | man |  |  | a careless manner |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **lie** *in a quote* | can |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **bury** *in a quote* | participle |  |  |  | the ground | year |  | vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in ground=Destination |

<!-- .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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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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