---
title: The stranger looked at the sack of peas, and said, ‘But you must pos… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The stranger looked at the sack of peas, and said, ‘But you must possess something; you are carrying this sack, which seems to be very heavy.’ Who acts: stranger, you, sack. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Grateful Prince, part 1, sentence 40

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The stranger looked at the sack of peas, and said, ‘But you must possess something; you are carrying this sack, which seems to be very heavy.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** stranger, you, sack · **What happens:** look, say, possess, carry, seem, be · **To what, where:** something, sack · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stranger, you, sack), 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:pg641:9:40
# text = The stranger looked at the sack of peas, and said, ‘But you must possess something; you are carrying this sack, which seems to be very heavy.’
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	stranger	stranger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	sack	sack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	peas	pea	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	possess	possess	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
18	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	carrying	carry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
23	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	24	det	_	_
24	sack	sack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	nsubj	_	_
27	seems	seem	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	acl:relcl	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
29	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	cop	_	_
30	very	very	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | past | the stranger |  |  |  |  | at the sack of peas | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at sack=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the stranger *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **possess** | must | you | something |  |  |  |  | vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot something=Theme |
| 4 | **carry** | present · progressive | you | this sack |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sack=Theme |
| 5 | **seem** | present | this sack |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **is** | to-infinitive | this sack *not said here* |  |  |  |  | heavy *property* | 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.

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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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