---
title: ‘I can’t understand him,’ said the Snow-man; ‘but I have an idea tha… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I can’t understand him,’ said the Snow-man; ‘but I have an idea that he is speaking of something unpleasant. Who acts: I, Snow man, man. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 5, sentence 92

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘I can’t understand him,’ said the Snow-man; ‘but I have an idea that he is speaking of something unpleasant.

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**Who acts:** I, Snow man, man · **What happens:** not understand, say, have, speak · **To what, where:** dog, idea · **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 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, Snow man, 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:pg5615:5:92
# text = ‘I can’t understand him,’ said the Snow-man; ‘but I have an idea that he is speaking of something unpleasant.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
11	Snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
19	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	idea	idea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	acl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	24	obl	_	_
27	unpleasant	unpleasant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **understand** | can | I | dog |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Snow man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **have** | present | I | a idea |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent idea=Patient |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* | present · progressive | man | a idea *not said here* |  |  |  | of something | 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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