---
title: ‘What an unhappy creature I am,’ she cried, ‘to be shut up in this d… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘What an unhappy creature I am,’ she cried, ‘to be shut up in this dismal tower as if I had committed some crime! Who acts: ambassador, I. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess Mayblossom, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Princess Mayblossom, part 1, sentence 41

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‘What an unhappy creature I am,’ she cried, ‘to be shut up in this dismal tower as if I had committed some crime!

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**Who acts:** ambassador, I · **What happens:** be, cry, shut up, commit · **To what, where:** unhappy creature, dismal tower, crime

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess Mayblossom, 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 (ambassador, I), 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:pg540:3:41
# text = ‘What an unhappy creature I am,’ she cried, ‘to be shut up in this dismal tower as if I had committed some crime!
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	nsubj	_	_
3	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	unhappy	unhappy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	parataxis	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
10	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
15	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	shut	shut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	conj	_	_
17	up	up	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	det	_	_
20	dismal	dismal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	tower	tower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
22	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
23	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
24	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	committed	commit	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
27	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	28	det	_	_
28	crime	crime	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present |  | a unhappy creature |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | ambassador |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **shut up** | to-infinitive · passive | ambassador *not said here* |  |  | this dismal tower |  |  | vn subjugate-42.3 «NP V NP» |
| 4 | **commit** | past · perfect | I | some crime |  |  |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crime=Theme |

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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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