---
title: ‘Wretched mortals,’ said I, ‘to what purpose are you busy? — Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Wretched mortals,’ said I, ‘to what purpose are you busy? Who acts: Wretched mortals, I. A sentence of «Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth» by Anonymous, The Story of Almet., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth, The Story of Almet., sentence 10

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‘Wretched mortals,’ said I, ‘to what purpose are you busy?

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**Who acts:** Wretched mortals, I · **What happens:** say, ‘, be · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth» by Anonymous, The Story of Almet.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Wretched mortals, I), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg62868:12:10
# text = ‘Wretched mortals,’ said I, ‘to what purpose are you busy?
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Wretched	wretched	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	mortals	mortal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	‘	‘	VERB	VB	Mood=Sub|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	15	nsubj	_	_
12	purpose	purpose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
13	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	busy	busy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Wretched mortals |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **‘** | infinitive | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | what  purpose *nsubj*; you *nsubj*; busy *property* | tree rules |

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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:** «Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth» by Anonymous, Project Gutenberg book 62868 (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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