---
title: He could say anything he liked now, so he said to-day that he longed… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He could say anything he liked now, so he said to-day that he longed to see his parents again. Who acts: man. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 14, sentence 30

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He could say anything he liked now, so he said to-day that he longed to see his parents again.

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** say, like, long, see · **To what, where:** anything, parents · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man), 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:pg5615:14:30
# text = He could say anything he liked now, so he said to-day that he longed to see his parents again.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	3	obj	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	liked	like	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
7	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	so	so	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	longed	long	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	parents	parent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
22	again	again	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | could | man | anything |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent anything=Topic |
| 2 | **like** | past | man |  |  |  | now |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | man |  |  |  | day |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **long** | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 5 | **see** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | man *not said here* | man's parents |  |  | again |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer parent=Stimulus |

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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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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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