---
title: ‘I have almost paid my debt,’ went on the little man, ‘but as you ha… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I have almost paid my debt,’ went on the little man, ‘but as you have suffered already, I will do more, and give you a piece of information. Who acts: I, you. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Headless Dwarfs, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Headless Dwarfs, sentence 117

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘I have almost paid my debt,’ went on the little man, ‘but as you have suffered already, I will do more, and give you a piece of information.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, you · **What happens:** pay, go, suffer, give · **To what, where:** debt, piece, you

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Headless Dwarfs. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, you), 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:pg641:33:117
# text = ‘I have almost paid my debt,’ went on the little man, ‘but as you have suffered already, I will do more, and give you a piece of information.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	paid	pay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
6	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	debt	debt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
10	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
16	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
18	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	suffered	suffer	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	26	advcl	_	_
22	already	already	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
24	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	do	do	AUX	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
27	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
31	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	30	iobj	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	information	information	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pay** | present · perfect | I | my debt |  |  |  | almost *property* | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent debt=Asset |
| 2 | **go** | past |  |  |  |  |  | on the little man | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on man=Location |
| 3 | **suffer** | present · perfect | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **give** | infinitive · do-support |  | a piece of information | you |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent you=Recipient piece=Theme |

<!-- .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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