---
title: As to whether there are really any fairies or not, that is a difficu… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: As to whether there are really any fairies or not, that is a difficult question. Who acts: that. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Joan, Toddles, and Tiny, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, Joan, Toddles, and Tiny, sentence 26

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As to whether there are really any fairies or not, that is a difficult question.

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**Who acts:** that · **What happens:** be, not be · **To what, where:** difficult question

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Joan, Toddles, and Tiny. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (that), 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:pg640:2:26
# text = As to whether there are really any fairies or not, that is a difficult question.
1	As	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	8	case	_	_
2	to	to	ADP	IN	_	1	fixed	_	_
3	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
4	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	5	expl	_	_
5	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
6	really	really	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
7	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	8	det	_	_
8	fairies	fairy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
9	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	16	nsubj	_	_
13	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	question	question	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | as any fairies or a difficult question | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **is a** | present | that | a difficult question |  |  |  |  | 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:** «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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