---
title: I am small and weak, but who knows whether some day I shall not be a… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: I am small and weak, but who knows whether some day I shall not be able to reward you.’ Who acts: I. 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 33

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I am small and weak, but who knows whether some day I shall not be able to reward you.’

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** be, know, not be, reward · **To what, where:** you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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), 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:pg641:33:33
# text = I am small and weak, but who knows whether some day I shall not be able to reward you.’
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	weak	weak	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
9	knows	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
11	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	12	det	_	_
12	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl:unmarked	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
14	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
16	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	cop	_	_
17	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	ccomp	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	reward	reward	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | I |  |  |  |  | small *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **know** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **not** **is** | shall | I |  |  |  | day | able *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **reward** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  | you |  |  |  | vn equip-13.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |

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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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