---
title: I cannot tell you what the crown was made of, but I am quite certain… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: I cannot tell you what the crown was made of, but I am quite certain that it was still more splendid than all the rest. Who acts: I, crown. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Donkey Cabbage, part 2, sentence 41

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I cannot tell you what the crown was made of, but I am quite certain that it was still more splendid than all the rest.

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**Who acts:** I, crown · **What happens:** not tell, make, be · **To what, where:** you, crown · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, crown), 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:pg640:11:41
# text = I cannot tell you what the crown was made of, but I am quite certain that it was still more splendid than all the rest.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	_
6	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	obj	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	crown	crown	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	acl:relcl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
21	still	still	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
22	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	23	advmod	_	_
23	splendid	splendid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	advcl	_	_
24	than	than	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	27	det:predet	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	rest	rest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | can | I |  | you |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent you=Recipient what=Topic |
| 2 | **make** | past · passive |  | the crown |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |
| 3 | **is** | present | I |  |  |  |  | certain *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | past | crown |  |  |  | still | than all rest; splendid *property* | 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 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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