---
title: ‘Very good,’ said the king, who by this time was almost tired of rep… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Very good,’ said the king, who by this time was almost tired of repeating the same words; ‘but if you fail your head will be the forfeit.’ Who acts: king, you. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 24, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/24/113/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 24, sentence 113

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Very good,’ said the king, who by this time was almost tired of repeating the same words; ‘but if you fail your head will be the forfeit.’

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**Who acts:** king, you · **What happens:** say, be, repeat, fail · **To what, where:** king, same words, head, forfeit · **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 24. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, you), 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:pg5615:24:113
# text = ‘Very good,’ said the king, who by this time was almost tired of repeating the same words; ‘but if you fail your head will be the forfeit.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Very	very	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
11	by	by	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	13	det	_	_
13	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	tired	tired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	parataxis	_	_
17	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
18	repeating	repeat	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	advcl	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
23	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
25	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	fail	fail	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	advcl	_	_
28	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
31	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	cop	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	forfeit	forfeit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the king |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent king=Topic |
| 2 | **is** | past | the king |  |  |  | time | almost, tired *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **repeat** | gerund | the king *not said here* | the same words |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Eventuality |
| 4 | **fail** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you | your head |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Eventuality |
| 5 | **is a** | future |  | the forfeit |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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