---
title: They all say she is very pretty, but what’s the use of that if she h… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They all say she is very pretty, but what’s the use of that if she has to sit for ever in the great copper castle with all the towers? Who acts: Princess, Witch. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Tinder-box, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Tinder-box, sentence 95

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They all say she is very pretty, but what’s the use of that if she has to sit for ever in the great copper castle with all the towers?

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**Who acts:** Princess, Witch · **What happens:** say, be, have, sit, use · **To what, where:** great copper castle, that · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Tinder-box. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Princess, Witch), 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:pg640:46:95
# text = They all say she is very pretty, but what’s the use of that if she has to sit for ever in the great copper castle with all the towers?
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	3	advmod	_	_
3	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	very	very	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	pretty	pretty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’s	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	13	nmod	_	_
16	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	sit	sit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	20	obl	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
25	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
26	copper	copper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	_
27	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
28	with	with	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	31	det:predet	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	towers	tower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | Princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | present | Witch |  |  |  |  | pretty *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | Witch |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **sit** | to-infinitive | Witch *not said here* |  |  | the great copper castle with all towers |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in castle=Location |
| 5 | **use** |  |  | that |  |  |  |  | nom use «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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