---
title: ‘Oh,’ said he, ‘why is faithlessness so great in the world?’ and he… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Oh,’ said he, ‘why is faithlessness so great in the world?’ and he sat down in sorrow and trouble, not knowing what to do. Who acts: Hunter. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Donkey Cabbage, part 1, sentence 55

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‘Oh,’ said he, ‘why is faithlessness so great in the world?’ and he sat down in sorrow and trouble, not knowing what to do.

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**Who acts:** Hunter · **What happens:** say, be, sit down, not know, do · **To what, where:** faithlessness, sorrow · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Hunter), 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:pg640:10:55
# text = ‘Oh,’ said he, ‘why is faithlessness so great in the world?’ and he sat down in sorrow and trouble, not knowing what to do.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
10	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	faithlessness	faithlessness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	ccomp	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
22	down	down	ADP	RP	_	21	compound:prt	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	sorrow	sorrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	trouble	trouble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
29	knowing	know	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	advcl	_	_
30	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	32	obj	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Hunter |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | present |  | faithlessness |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **sit down** | past | Hunter |  |  | sorrow and trouble |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in sorrow=Location |
| 4 | **not** **know** | gerund | Hunter *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **do** | to-infinitive | Hunter *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |

<!-- .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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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