---
title: ‘What can you do?’ she said; and the girl was forced to confess that… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘What can you do?’ she said; and the girl was forced to confess that she could do very little. Who acts: you, maid, girl. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/21/65/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 21, sentence 65

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‘What can you do?’ she said; and the girl was forced to confess that she could do very little.

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**Who acts:** you, maid, girl · **What happens:** do, say, force, confess · **To what, where:** girl, little · **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 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, maid, girl), 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:pg5615:21:65
# text = ‘What can you do?’ she said; and the girl was forced to confess that she could do very little.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	obj	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux:pass	_	_
15	forced	force	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	ccomp	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	confess	confess	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	ccomp	_	_
22	very	very	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | can | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | maid |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **force** | past · passive |  | the girl |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **confess** | to-infinitive | the girl *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn confess-37.10 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **do** | could | maid | little |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent little=Eventuality |

<!-- .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 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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