---
title: The poor creature had a most trying life of it in every way, and day… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The poor creature had a most trying life of it in every way, and day and night he pondered how he could make it better. Who acts: poor creature, creature. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Magic Swan, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Magic Swan, sentence 4

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The poor creature had a most trying life of it in every way, and day and night he pondered how he could make it better.

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**Who acts:** poor creature, creature · **What happens:** have, try, ponder, make · **To what, where:** trying life, way, life

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Magic Swan. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor creature, creature), 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:pg7277:23:4
# text = The poor creature had a most trying life of it in every way, and day and night he pondered how he could make it better.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	7	advmod	_	_
7	trying	try	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	amod	_	_
8	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nmod	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	13	det	_	_
13	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
16	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl:unmarked	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	pondered	ponder	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
21	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	24	advmod	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	ccomp	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	24	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | the poor creature | a trying life of life |  | every way |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Patient |
| 2 | **try** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **ponder** | past | creature |  |  |  | day |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **make** | could | creature | life |  |  |  | good *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Product |

<!-- .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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