---
title: ‘Good heavens!’ said the Governor, ‘has he actually got the better o… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Good heavens!’ said the Governor, ‘has he actually got the better of me again?’ Who acts: Good heavens, Governor. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master Thief, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Master Thief, sentence 251

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‘Good heavens!’ said the Governor, ‘has he actually got the better of me again?’

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**Who acts:** Good heavens, Governor · **What happens:** say, have, get · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master Thief. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Good heavens, Governor), 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:pg540:9:251
# text = ‘Good heavens!’ said the Governor, ‘has he actually got the better of me again?’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	heavens	heaven	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Governor	Governor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	actually	actually	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	14	xcomp	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	_
19	again	again	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Good heavens |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **have** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **get** | past | Governor |  |  |  | again | actually, good *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |

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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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