---
title: ‘It’s of no use speaking about that,’ said the king; ‘you cannot hel… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘It’s of no use speaking about that,’ said the king; ‘you cannot help me, at any rate.’ Who acts: stable, use, you. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 27, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 27, sentence 64

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‘It’s of no use speaking about that,’ said the king; ‘you cannot help me, at any rate.’

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**Who acts:** stable, use, you · **What happens:** be, speak, say, not help · **To what, where:** king, me, rate · **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 27. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stable, use, 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:pg5615:27:64
# text = ‘It’s of no use speaking about that,’ said the king; ‘you cannot help me, at any rate.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	’s	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	6	det	_	_
6	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	ccomp	_	_
7	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	acl	_	_
8	about	about	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
16	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
20	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
21	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	25	det	_	_
25	rate	rate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | stable |  |  |  |  | of no use | tree rules |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | gerund | no use *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about no use | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about that=Topic |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the king |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **help** | can | you |  | me | any rate |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Beneficiary |

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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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