---
title: I am not ambitious, and having spent all my life in this tedious tow… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: I am not ambitious, and having spent all my life in this tedious tower, anything—even a house in the country—will seem a delightful change. Who acts: 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 57

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I am not ambitious, and having spent all my life in this tedious tower, anything—even a house in the country—will seem a delightful change.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** not be, spend, seem · **To what, where:** life, tedious tower, delightful change

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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 (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:pg540:3:57
# text = I am not ambitious, and having spent all my life in this tedious tower, anything—even a house in the country—will seem a delightful change.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	ambitious	ambitious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	having	have	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	aux	_	_
8	spent	spend	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
9	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	11	det:predet	_	_
10	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	15	det	_	_
14	tedious	tedious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	tower	tower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	even	even	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	appos	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	—	-	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	seem	seem	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	delightful	delightful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	change	change	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | present | I |  |  |  |  | ambitious *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **spend** | gerund · perfect | I *not said here* | my life |  | this tedious tower |  |  | vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Asset |
| 3 | **seem** | future |  | a delightful change |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme change=Attribute |

<!-- .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 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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