---
title: The story I am going to tell you happened many years ago, but it is… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The story I am going to tell you happened many years ago, but it is worth while for you to listen to it, before it is forgotten. Who acts: story, you, it. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nightingale, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/48/2/)

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Nightingale, sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The story I am going to tell you happened many years ago, but it is worth while for you to listen to it, before it is forgotten.

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**Who acts:** story, you, it · **What happens:** go, tell, happen, be, listen, forget · **To what, where:** story · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nightingale. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (story, you, it), 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:pg640:48:2
# text = The story I am going to tell you happened many years ago, but it is worth while for you to listen to it, before it is forgotten.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	ccomp	_	_
10	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl:unmarked	_	_
12	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
17	worth	worth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	parataxis	_	_
18	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
19	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	listen	listen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	csubj	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj:pass	_	_
28	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux:pass	_	_
29	forgotten	forget	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | present · progressive | the story |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | the story *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **happen** | past | you |  |  |  |  | ago *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | present | it |  |  |  |  | worth *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **listen** | to-infinitive | you |  | story |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to it=Theme |
| 6 | **forget** | present · passive |  | story |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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