---
title: ‘I am an evil spirit,’ said the voice, ‘shut up here till Doomsday,… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I am an evil spirit,’ said the voice, ‘shut up here till Doomsday, unless a man sets me free. Who acts: I, evil spirit, man. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Virgilius the Sorcerer, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Virgilius the Sorcerer, sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘I am an evil spirit,’ said the voice, ‘shut up here till Doomsday, unless a man sets me free.

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**Who acts:** I, evil spirit, man · **What happens:** be, say, shut up, set · **To what, where:** evil spirit, voice, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Virgilius the Sorcerer. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, evil spirit, man), 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:pg641:43:14
# text = ‘I am an evil spirit,’ said the voice, ‘shut up here till Doomsday, unless a man sets me free.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	evil	evil	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	spirit	spirit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	shut	shut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	parataxis	_	_
15	up	up	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	_
16	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	14	advmod	_	_
17	till	till	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	Doomsday	Doomsday	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	unless	unless	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	sets	set	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
24	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	free	free	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | I | a evil spirit |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | a evil spirit | the voice |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent voice=Topic |
| 3 | **shut up** | participle |  |  |  | here | till Doomsday |  | vn subjugate-42.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **set** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | a man | me |  |  |  | free *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient i=Result |

<!-- .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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