---
title: I am half killed!” and could not tell where it came from, because ca… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: I am half killed!” and could not tell where it came from, because cabbages do not generally speak. Who acts: voice, cabbages. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Felicia and the Pot of Pinks, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Felicia and the Pot of Pinks, sentence 54

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I am half killed!” and could not tell where it came from, because cabbages do not generally speak.

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**Who acts:** voice, cabbages · **What happens:** kill, not tell, come, not speak · **To what, where:** I · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Felicia and the Pot of Pinks. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (voice, cabbages), 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:pg503:22:54
# text = I am half killed!” and could not tell where it came from, because cabbages do not generally speak.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
3	half	half	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	4	advmod	_	_
4	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
11	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	13	advmod	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	ccomp	_	_
14	from	from	ADP	IN	_	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
17	cabbages	cabbage	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj	_	_
18	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
20	generally	generally	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **kill** | present · passive |  | I |  |  |  | half *property* | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | could |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **come** *in a quote* | past | voice |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **speak** *speech: other* *in a quote* | present · do-support | cabbages |  |  |  |  | generally *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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