---
title: ‘We cannot sleep, we wake and weep, Sharp is the knife, to take our… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘We cannot sleep, we wake and weep, Sharp is the knife, to take our life; The fire is hot, now boils the pot, And so we wake, and lie and quake.’ Who acts: We, Sharp, fire. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Duck, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The White Duck, sentence 38

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘We cannot sleep, we wake and weep, Sharp is the knife, to take our life; The fire is hot, now boils the pot, And so we wake, and lie and quake.’

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**Who acts:** We, Sharp, fire · **What happens:** not sleep, wake, weep, be, take, boil · **To what, where:** knife, life, pot

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Duck. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (We, Sharp, fire), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg640:29:38
# text = ‘We cannot sleep, we wake and weep, Sharp is the knife, to take our life; The fire is hot, now boils the pot, And so we wake, and lie and quake.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	sleep	sleep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	wake	wake	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	weep	weep	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	Sharp	Sharp	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
13	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
19	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
22	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
24	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
25	hot	hot	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	28	advmod	_	_
28	boils	boil	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	parataxis	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	pot	pot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
32	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
33	so	so	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
34	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	wake	wake	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
38	lie	lie	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
40	quake	quake	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	38	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **sleep** | can | We |  |  |  |  |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **wake** | present | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **weep** | present | we *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** | present | Sharp | the knife |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **take** | to-infinitive | we *not said here* | our life |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Theme |
| 6 | **is** | present | the fire |  |  |  |  | hot *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **boil** | present |  | the pot |  |  | now |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent pot=Patient |
| 8 | **wake** | present | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 9 | **lie** | infinitive | We *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 10 | **quake** | infinitive | We *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn body\_internal\_states-40.6 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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