---
title: ‘What CAN there be in that twelfth cellar,’ he thought to himself, ‘… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘What CAN there be in that twelfth cellar,’ he thought to himself, ‘which I must not see?’ Who acts: CAN, I. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nine Pea-hens and the Golden Apples, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Nine Pea-hens and the Golden Apples, sentence 38

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‘What CAN there be in that twelfth cellar,’ he thought to himself, ‘which I must not see?’

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**Who acts:** CAN, I · **What happens:** be, think, not see · **To what, where:** twelfth cellar, CAN · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nine Pea-hens and the Golden Apples. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (CAN, 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:pg641:7:38
# text = ‘What CAN there be in that twelfth cellar,’ he thought to himself, ‘which I must not see?’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	9	nsubj	_	_
3	CAN	CAN	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
4	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	cop	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
8	twelfth	twelfth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	cellar	cellar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
17	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	obj	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
22	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | infinitive |  |  |  | that twelfth cellar |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | CAN |  | CAN |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **see** | must | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer which=Stimulus |

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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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