---
title: The best plan seems to be to answer that I have entirely abandoned m… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The best plan seems to be to answer that I have entirely abandoned mere literature, and am contemplating a book on ‘The Causes of Early Blight in the Potato,’ a melancholy circumstance which threatens to deprive us of our chief esculent root. Who acts: best plan, I, melancholy circumstance. A senten
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/1/12/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/1/) / 12

# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1, sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The best plan seems to be to answer that I have entirely abandoned mere literature, and am contemplating a book on ‘The Causes of Early Blight in the Potato,’ a melancholy circumstance which threatens to deprive us of our chief esculent root.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** best plan, I, melancholy circumstance · **What happens:** seem, be, abandon, contemplate, threaten, deprive · **To what, where:** mere literature, book, Causes, us

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (best plan, I, melancholy circumstance), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3454:1:12
# text = The best plan seems to be to answer that I have entirely abandoned mere literature, and am contemplating a book on ‘The Causes of Early Blight in the Potato,’ a melancholy circumstance which threatens to deprive us of our chief esculent root.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	amod	_	_
3	plan	plan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	seems	seem	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	cop	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	answer	answer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	entirely	entirely	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	abandoned	abandon	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
14	mere	mere	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	literature	literature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	contemplating	contemplate	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	book	book	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	Causes	Cause	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	21	nmod	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	Early	early	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	Blight	blight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	Potato	Potato	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	’	'	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	melancholy	melancholy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	compound	_	_
36	circumstance	circumstance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	parataxis	_	_
37	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	38	nsubj	_	_
38	threatens	threaten	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	36	acl:relcl	_	_
39	to	to	PART	TO	_	40	mark	_	_
40	deprive	deprive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	38	xcomp	_	_
41	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	40	obj	_	_
42	of	of	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
43	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	46	nmod:poss	_	_
44	chief	chief	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	46	amod	_	_
45	esculent	esculent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	46	amod	_	_
46	root	root	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | present | the best plan |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **is** | to-infinitive | the best plan *not said here* |  |  |  |  | answer *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **abandon** | present · perfect | I | mere literature |  |  |  | entirely *property* | vn leave-51.2 «NP V NP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme literature=Source |
| 4 | **contemplate** | present · progressive | the best plan *not said here* | a book |  | the Causes of Early Blight in the Potato |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **threaten** | present | a melancholy circumstance |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **deprive** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | a melancholy circumstance *not said here* | us |  |  |  | of our chief esculent root | vn deprive-10.6.2 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent we=Source of root=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/1/11/)
- next →: [sentence 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/1/13/)
- ↑ back to [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/1/)