---
title: ‘You see how they toil,’ said the Fairy; ‘but it is all of no avail:… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘You see how they toil,’ said the Fairy; ‘but it is all of no avail: they will end by dying of despair, as hundreds have done before them.’ Who acts: You, faces. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Heart of Ice, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Heart of Ice, part 2, sentence 49

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘You see how they toil,’ said the Fairy; ‘but it is all of no avail: they will end by dying of despair, as hundreds have done before them.’

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**Who acts:** You, faces · **What happens:** see, toil, say, end, die, do · **To what, where:** Fairy, hundreds · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Heart of Ice, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (You, faces), 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:pg7277:15:49
# text = ‘You see how they toil,’ said the Fairy; ‘but it is all of no avail: they will end by dying of despair, as hundreds have done before them.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	see	see	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
4	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	toil	toil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	Fairy	fairy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
17	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	9	ccomp	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	20	det	_	_
20	avail	avail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	end	end	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	parataxis	_	_
25	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
26	dying	die	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	advcl	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	despair	despair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
31	hundreds	hundred	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nsubj:pass	_	_
32	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	parataxis	_	_
34	before	before	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	33	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | present | You |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **toil** |  | faces *= face* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the Fairy |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **end** | future | faces *= face* |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 5 | **die** | gerund | faces *= face* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of despair | vn die-42.4-1 «NP V PP.cause»: agent=Patient of despair=Causer |
| 6 | **do** | present · perfect · passive |  | hundreds |  |  | before faces *= face* |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality |

<!-- .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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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