---
title: But when the man once more saw this he said to himself, ‘What a bad… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But when the man once more saw this he said to himself, ‘What a bad business this is! Who acts: man, bad business. 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 62

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But when the man once more saw this he said to himself, ‘What a bad business this is!

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**Who acts:** man, bad business · **What happens:** see, say, be · **To what, where:** this, man · **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 (man, bad business), 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:pg540:9:62
# text = But when the man once more saw this he said to himself, ‘What a bad business this is!
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
2	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	7	advmod	_	_
6	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	7	advmod	_	_
7	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
8	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	obj	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	10	ccomp	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	business	business	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
19	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	15	nsubj	_	_
20	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | the man | this |  |  |  | once *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer this=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | man |  | man |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to himself=Recipient |
| 3 | **is a** | present | a bad business |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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