---
title: ‘What a pity,’ she would often say to Elsa, ‘that you have grown so… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘What a pity,’ she would often say to Elsa, ‘that you have grown so big, you cannot play with me any more.’ Who acts: pity, you. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale of the Tontlawald, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, A Tale of the Tontlawald, sentence 131

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‘What a pity,’ she would often say to Elsa, ‘that you have grown so big, you cannot play with me any more.’

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**Who acts:** pity, you · **What happens:** pity, say, grow, not play · **To what, where:** Elsa · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale of the Tontlawald. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pity, you), 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:pg641:2:131
# text = ‘What a pity,’ she would often say to Elsa, ‘that you have grown so big, you cannot play with me any more.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	nsubj	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	pity	pity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
8	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	often	often	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	Elsa	Elsa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	grown	grow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	25	advcl	_	_
19	so	so	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
22	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	obl	_	_
28	any	any	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pity** |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | would | a pity |  | Elsa |  |  | often *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to elsa=Recipient |
| 3 | **grow** | present · perfect | you |  |  |  |  | big *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **play** | can | you |  |  |  |  | with me | vn play-114.2-1 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with i=Co-Agent |

<!-- .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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