---
title: ‘I will just have a shot at that duck,’ said he, and began to aim at… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I will just have a shot at that duck,’ said he, and began to aim at it. Who acts: I, duck. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Dwarfs, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Three Dwarfs, part 3, sentence 29

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‘I will just have a shot at that duck,’ said he, and began to aim at it.

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**Who acts:** I, duck · **What happens:** have, say, begin, aim · **To what, where:** shot · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Dwarfs, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, duck), 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:pg540:39:29
# text = ‘I will just have a shot at that duck,’ said he, and began to aim at it.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	just	just	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	shot	shot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	det	_	_
10	duck	duck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	aim	aim	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | future | I | a shot |  |  |  | at that duck | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shot=Patient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | duck |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **begin** | past | duck *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **aim** | to-infinitive | duck *not said here* |  |  | shot |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |

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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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