---
title: “Some talk about going from bad to worse,” said the Prince; “but thi… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Some talk about going from bad to worse,” said the Prince; “but this is better and better. Who acts: Some, Prince, this. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master-maid, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/17/18/)

<!-- 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 Blue Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/) / [The Master-maid, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/17/) / 18

# The Blue Fairy Book, The Master-maid, part 1, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Some talk about going from bad to worse,” said the Prince; “but this is better and better.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Some, Prince, this · **What happens:** talk, go, say, be · **To what, where:** bad · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master-maid, 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 (Some, Prince, this), 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:pg503:17:18
# text = “Some talk about going from bad to worse,” said the Prince; “but this is better and better.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	3	nsubj	_	_
3	talk	talk	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
4	about	about	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
5	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
6	from	from	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	obl	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	worse	bad	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
16	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	20	nsubj	_	_
19	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	12	parataxis	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **talk** *in a quote* | present | Some |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **go** *in a quote* | gerund | Some *not said here* |  |  | bad |  | to worse | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Theme from bad=Initial\_Location to bad=Destination |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | present | this |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **be** *in a quote* |  | this *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/17/17/)
- next →: [sentence 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/17/19/)
- ↑ back to [The Master-maid, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/17/)