---
title: ‘I had better go and ask his advice; perhaps he will know what to do… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I had better go and ask his advice; perhaps he will know what to do to prevent the misfortunes which the fairies foretold.’ Who acts: I, hermit, misfortunes. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Princess Rosette, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Princess Rosette, sentence 26

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‘I had better go and ask his advice; perhaps he will know what to do to prevent the misfortunes which the fairies foretold.’

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**Who acts:** I, hermit, misfortunes · **What happens:** have, go, ask, know, do, prevent · **To what, where:** advice, fairies · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Princess Rosette. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, hermit, misfortunes), 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:pg540:11:26
# text = ‘I had better go and ask his advice; perhaps he will know what to do to prevent the misfortunes which the fairies foretold.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	xcomp	_	_
5	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	advice	advice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
15	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	17	obj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	ccomp	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	prevent	prevent	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	misfortunes	misfortune	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
22	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	fairies	fairy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
25	foretold	foretell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | I |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **go** | infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | infinitive | I *not said here* | hermit's advice |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent advice=Recipient |
| 4 | **know** | future | hermit |  |  |  |  | perhaps *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **do** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 6 | **prevent** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Causer |
| 7 | **fairy** |  | the misfortunes |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **foretell** | participle |  | the fairies *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

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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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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