---
title: ‘Why, you have no more power than a flea,’ laughed the host; ‘you wi… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Why, you have no more power than a flea,’ laughed the host; ‘you will have to content yourself with feasting your eyes upon them!’ Who acts: you. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Underground Workers, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Underground Workers, sentence 44

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‘Why, you have no more power than a flea,’ laughed the host; ‘you will have to content yourself with feasting your eyes upon them!’

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** have, laugh, content, feast · **To what, where:** more power, host, yourself, eyes

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Underground Workers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (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:pg641:25:44
# text = ‘Why, you have no more power than a flea,’ laughed the host; ‘you will have to content yourself with feasting your eyes upon them!’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
6	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	8	det	_	_
7	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	8	amod	_	_
8	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
9	than	than	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	flea	flea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
14	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	host	host	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
18	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	content	content	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	yourself	yourself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	23	obj	_	_
25	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
26	feasting	feast	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
27	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	_
29	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | you | no more power |  |  |  | than a flea | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent power=Patient |
| 2 | **laugh** | past |  | the host |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent host=Theme |
| 3 | **have** | future | you |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **content** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | yourself |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus yourself=Experiencer |
| 5 | **feast** | gerund | you *not said here* | your eyes |  |  |  | upon eyes *= eye* | tree rules |

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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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