---
title: “You see, sir,” said the Marquis, “this is a meadow which never fail… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “You see, sir,” said the Marquis, “this is a meadow which never fails to yield a plentiful harvest every year.” Who acts: You, Marquis, this, meadow. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master Cat; Or, Puss in Boots, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Master Cat; Or, Puss in Boots, sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“You see, sir,” said the Marquis, “this is a meadow which never fails to yield a plentiful harvest every year.”

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**Who acts:** You, Marquis, this, meadow · **What happens:** see, say, be, not fail, yield · **To what, where:** sir, meadow, plentiful harvest · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master Cat; Or, Puss in Boots. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (You, Marquis, this, meadow), 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:pg503:21:42
# text = “You see, sir,” said the Marquis, “this is a meadow which never fails to yield a plentiful harvest every year.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	see	see	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	sir	sir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Marquis	Marquis	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	16	nsubj	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	meadow	meadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	appos	_	_
17	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
18	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	fails	fail	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	acl:relcl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	yield	yield	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	plentiful	plentiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	harvest	harvest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
25	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	26	det	_	_
26	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** *in a quote* | present | You | sir |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer sir=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Marquis |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | this | a meadow |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **fail** *in a quote* | present | a meadow |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **yield** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | a meadow *not said here* | a plentiful harvest |  |  | year |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent harvest=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.

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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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