---
title: “Alas!” he said to himself, “whoever has taken my ring has probably… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Alas!” he said to himself, “whoever has taken my ring has probably taken my dear wife also. Who acts: Nicholas, whoever. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Bronze Ring, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Bronze Ring, sentence 167

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“Alas!” he said to himself, “whoever has taken my ring has probably taken my dear wife also.

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**Who acts:** Nicholas, whoever · **What happens:** say, take · **To what, where:** Nicholas, ring, dear wife · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Bronze Ring. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Nicholas, whoever), 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:pg503:2:167
# text = “Alas!” he said to himself, “whoever has taken my ring has probably taken my dear wife also.
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	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|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	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	whoever	whoever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
12	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	advcl	_	_
14	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	ring	ring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	probably	probably	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	ccomp	_	_
19	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
20	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
22	also	also	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	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 | Nicholas |  | Nicholas |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to himself=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **take** *in a quote* | present · perfect | whoever | my ring |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ring=Theme |
| 3 | **take** *in a quote* | present · perfect |  |  | my dear wife |  |  | probably *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument wife=Destination |

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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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