---
title: The man said, ‘I don’t know what is turning those windmills; there i… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The man said, ‘I don’t know what is turning those windmills; there is not the slightest breeze blowing.’ Who acts: man, I, slightest breeze. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, part 1, sentence 12

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The man said, ‘I don’t know what is turning those windmills; there is not the slightest breeze blowing.’

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**Who acts:** man, I, slightest breeze · **What happens:** say, not know, turn, not be, blow · **To what, where:** windmills · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, 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 (man, I, slightest breeze), 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:pg640:19:12
# text = The man said, ‘I don’t know what is turning those windmills; there is not the slightest breeze blowing.’
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
5	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
10	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	12	nsubj	_	_
11	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	turning	turn	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	ccomp	_	_
13	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	14	det	_	_
14	windmills	windmill	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
16	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	17	expl	_	_
17	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	slightest	slight	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	21	amod	_	_
21	breeze	breeze	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	blowing	blow	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	22	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 | the man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **know** | present · do-support | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **turn** | present · progressive |  | that windmills |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent windmill=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **be** | present | the slightest breeze *not said here* |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **blow** | gerund | the slightest breeze |  |  |  |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient |

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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 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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