---
title: ‘What would be the good of my taking a near shot?’ replied the man;… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘What would be the good of my taking a near shot?’ replied the man; ‘I can hit beast or bird at a hundred miles’ distance. Who acts: my, I. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Flying Ship(24), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Flying Ship(24), sentence 44

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‘What would be the good of my taking a near shot?’ replied the man; ‘I can hit beast or bird at a hundred miles’ distance.

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**Who acts:** my, I · **What happens:** be, take, reply, hit · **To what, where:** near shot, man, beast · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Flying Ship(24). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (my, I), 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:pg640:35:44
# text = ‘What would be the good of my taking a near shot?’ replied the man; ‘I can hit beast or bird at a hundred miles’ distance.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	6	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	ccomp	_	_
7	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	taking	take	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	near	near	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	shot	shot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
15	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	hit	hit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	parataxis	_	_
23	beast	beast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
24	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	_
26	at	at	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	hundred	hundred	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	29	nummod	_	_
29	miles	mile	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	’	's	PART	POS	_	29	case	_	_
31	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | would |  |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **take** | gerund | my | a near shot |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shot=Theme |
| 3 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past |  | the man |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent man=Topic |
| 4 | **hit** | can | I | beast or bird |  |  |  | at a hundred miles's distance | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent beast=Theme at distance=Destination |

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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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