---
title: ‘I must say your dumplings are always very good; but I don’t think I… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I must say your dumplings are always very good; but I don’t think I ever tasted anything so delicious as they were to-day. Who acts: I, dumplings. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/27/126/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Violet Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/) / [The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/27/) / 126

# The Violet Fairy Book, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 2, sentence 126

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘I must say your dumplings are always very good; but I don’t think I ever tasted anything so delicious as they were to-day.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, dumplings · **What happens:** say, be, not think, taste · **To what, where:** anything · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, dumplings), 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:pg641:27:126
# text = ‘I must say your dumplings are always very good; but I don’t think I ever tasted anything so delicious as they were to-day.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	dumplings	dumpling	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
7	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
8	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	10	advmod	_	_
9	very	very	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	19	advmod	_	_
19	tasted	taste	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	ccomp	_	_
20	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	19	obj	_	_
21	so	so	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	delicious	delicious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	xcomp	_	_
23	as	as	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
25	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | must | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | present | your dumplings |  |  |  |  | always, good *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **think** *speech: other* | present · do-support | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **taste** | past | I | anything |  |  | ever | delicious *property* | vn seem-109 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Theme anything=Attribute |
| 5 | **is** | past | dumplings *= dumpling* |  |  |  | as day |  | 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 125](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/27/125/)
- next →: [sentence 127](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/27/127/)
- ↑ back to [The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/27/)