---
title: ‘It is certain,’ said he, ‘that something is wrong--what it is I don… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘It is certain,’ said he, ‘that something is wrong--what it is I don’t know how to tell you, but in some way your work is imperfect.’ Who acts: grief, he, something, I. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Heart of Ice, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Heart of Ice, part 3, sentence 6

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘It is certain,’ said he, ‘that something is wrong--what it is I don’t know how to tell you, but in some way your work is imperfect.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** grief, he, something, I, work, your · **What happens:** be, say, not know, tell, work · **To what, where:** you, way · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Heart of Ice, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (grief, he, something, 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:pg7277:16:6
# text = ‘It is certain,’ said he, ‘that something is wrong--what it is I don’t know how to tell you, but in some way your work is imperfect.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	12	nsubj	_	_
12	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	14	nsubj	_	_
13	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
14	wrong	wrong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	22	obj	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
18	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
22	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	parataxis	_	_
23	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	25	advmod	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	conj	_	_
26	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	25	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
28	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	31	det	_	_
31	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	_
32	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nsubj	_	_
34	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	35	cop	_	_
35	imperfect	imperfect	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | grief |  |  |  |  | certain *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | he |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | present | something |  |  |  |  | wrong *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **is a** | present | grief |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **know** | present · do-support | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  | you |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |
| 7 | **is** | present | your work |  |  | some way |  | imperfect *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **work** |  | your |  |  |  |  |  | nom work «act intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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