---
title: ‘Oh, make the best of it,’ said she, but the man only said: ‘Clear a… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Oh, make the best of it,’ said she, but the man only said: ‘Clear away!’ and taking out his sack he cried, as the crane had taught him: Who acts: you, wife, man. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Two in a Sack, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Two in a Sack, sentence 20

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Oh, make the best of it,’ said she, but the man only said: ‘Clear away!’ and taking out his sack he cried, as the crane had taught him:

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**Who acts:** you, wife, man · **What happens:** make, say, take out, cry, teach · **To what, where:** best, sack, crane, man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Two in a Sack. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, wife, man), 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:pg641:17:20
# text = ‘Oh, make the best of it,’ said she, but the man only said: ‘Clear away!’ and taking out his sack he cried, as the crane had taught him:
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	make	make	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	4	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
17	only	only	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
20	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	Clear	clear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	ccomp	_	_
22	away	away	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	21	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	taking	take	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	18	ccomp	_	_
27	out	out	ADP	RP	_	26	compound:prt	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	sack	sack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
33	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	crane	crane	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nsubj:pass	_	_
36	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
37	taught	teach	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	advcl	_	_
38	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | imperative | you *not said here* | the best |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset good=Product |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | wife |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **take out** | gerund |  | man's sack |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sack=Theme |
| 5 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | man | man's sack *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sack=Topic |
| 6 | **teach** *speech: other* | past · perfect · passive |  | the crane | man |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient he=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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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