---
title: ‘My sword is no use,’ he thought to himself; ‘these wretches will br… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘My sword is no use,’ he thought to himself; ‘these wretches will break it like glass, and if I can’t think of anything else, I am a dead man.’ Who acts: sword, soldier, wretches, I. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Little Soldier, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Little Soldier, sentence 56

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘My sword is no use,’ he thought to himself; ‘these wretches will break it like glass, and if I can’t think of anything else, I am a dead man.’

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**Who acts:** sword, soldier, wretches, I · **What happens:** be, think, break, not think · **To what, where:** use, soldier, sword, dead man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Little Soldier. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sword, soldier, wretches, 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:pg7277:22:56
# text = ‘My sword is no use,’ he thought to himself; ‘these wretches will break it like glass, and if I can’t think of anything else, I am a dead man.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	6	det	_	_
6	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	16	det	_	_
16	wretches	wretch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
17	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	like	like	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	glass	glass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
24	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
26	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
28	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	28	obl	_	_
31	else	else	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
33	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
34	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	37	cop	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
36	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | My sword | no use |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | soldier |  | soldier |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **break** | future | this wretches | sword |  |  |  | like glass | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Patient |
| 4 | **not** **think** *speech: other* *a condition, not said to happen* | can | I |  |  |  |  | of anything | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is a** | present | I | a dead man |  |  |  |  | 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 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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