---
title: “I had better say nothing,” thought he; “perhaps I shall be able to… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “I had better say nothing,” thought he; “perhaps I shall be able to help him after all.” Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 5, 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 5, sentence 39

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“I had better say nothing,” thought he; “perhaps I shall be able to help him after all.”

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** have, say, think, be, help · **To what, where:** nothing, Knight · **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 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I), 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:pg3282:38:39
# text = “I had better say nothing,” thought he; “perhaps I shall be able to help him after all.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
4	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	xcomp	_	_
5	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
9	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	cop	_	_
17	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	ccomp	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	after	after	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** *in a quote* | past | I |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | infinitive | I *not said here* | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent nothing=Topic |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past |  | Knight |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent he=Attribute clause=Theme |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | shall | I |  |  |  |  | able, perhaps *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **help** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  | Knight |  | after all |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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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