---
title: This plan was by no means new, but it had often succeeded, and, anyh… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: This plan was by no means new, but it had often succeeded, and, anyhow, they could think of nothing better. Who acts: plan, princesses. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 29, 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/pg5615/29/120/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 29, sentence 120

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This plan was by no means new, but it had often succeeded, and, anyhow, they could think of nothing better.

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**Who acts:** plan, princesses · **What happens:** be, succeed, think · **To what, where:** plan

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 29. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (plan, princesses), 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:pg5615:29:120
# text = This plan was by no means new, but it had often succeeded, and, anyhow, they could think of nothing better.
1	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	det	_	_
2	plan	plan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	by	by	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	6	obl	_	_
6	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	often	often	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	succeeded	succeed	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
17	anyhow	anyhow	INTJ	UH	_	21	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	21	obl	_	_
24	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	21	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | this plan |  |  |  |  | by no; mean, new *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **succeed** | past · perfect · passive |  | plan |  |  |  | often *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | could | princesses *= princess* |  |  |  |  | of nothing | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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