---
title: But the magicians, with all their arts, could find out nothing, exce… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the magicians, with all their arts, could find out nothing, except that he was still living and undergoing great suffering; but none could tell where he was to be found. Who acts: magicians, magician, none. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon of the North(2), with it
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Dragon of the North(2), sentence 192

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the magicians, with all their arts, could find out nothing, except that he was still living and undergoing great suffering; but none could tell where he was to be found.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** magicians, magician, none · **What happens:** find out, live, undergo, tell, find · **To what, where:** nothing, great suffering, magician · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon of the North(2). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (magicians, magician, none), 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:pg640:5:192
# text = But the magicians, with all their arts, could find out nothing, except that he was still living and undergoing great suffering; but none could tell where he was to be found.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	magicians	magician	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	8	det:predet	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	arts	art	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
10	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
12	out	out	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
13	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	except	except	ADP	IN	_	20	advmod	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	fixed	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	still	still	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	living	live	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	obj	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	undergoing	undergo	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	conj	_	_
23	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	suffering	suffering	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
26	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
27	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	29	nsubj	_	_
28	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
30	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	35	advmod	_	_
31	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
32	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	aux:pass	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
34	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	aux:pass	_	_
35	found	find	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	29	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **find out** | could | the magicians and kings's arts | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Topic |
| 2 | **live** | past · progressive | magician |  |  |  | still |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **undergo** | gerund | magician *not said here* | great suffering |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | could | none |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **find** *not said to happen* | past · passive |  | magician |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic |

<!-- .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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