---
title: “Alas!” she said, “I am the innocent cause of our sorrows,” and told… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Alas!” she said, “I am the innocent cause of our sorrows,” and told him of the exchange of the lamp. Who acts: Princess, our. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, sentence 211

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“Alas!” she said, “I am the innocent cause of our sorrows,” and told him of the exchange of the lamp.

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**Who acts:** Princess, our · **What happens:** say, be, tell, sorrow, exchange · **To what, where:** innocent cause, Aladdin, lamp · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Princess, our), 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:pg503:12:211
# text = “Alas!” she said, “I am the innocent cause of our sorrows,” and told him of the exchange of the lamp.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Alas	alas	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
10	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	innocent	innocent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	cause	cause	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	parataxis	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	sorrows	sorrow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	iobj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	exchange	exchange	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	lamp	lamp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | Princess | the innocent cause |  |  |  | of our sorrows | tree rules |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Princess *not said here* |  | Aladdin |  |  | of the exchange of the lamp | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 4 | **sorrow** *in a quote* |  | our |  |  |  |  |  | nom sorrow «feeling intransitive»: poss=agent |
| 5 | **exchange** |  |  | the lamp |  |  |  |  | nom exchange «phenomenon transitive»: of=patient |

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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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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