---
title: Like a madman I have killed the woman who is the prop and stay of my… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Like a madman I have killed the woman who is the prop and stay of my old age. Who acts: woman. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 1, sentence 85

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Like a madman I have killed the woman who is the prop and stay of my old age.

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**Who acts:** woman · **What happens:** kill, be, stay · **To what, where:** I, prop

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, 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 (woman), 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:pg7277:26:85
# text = Like a madman I have killed the woman who is the prop and stay of my old age.
1	Like	like	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	madman	madman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
10	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	prop	prop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	stay	stay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
17	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	age	age	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **kill** | present · perfect · passive |  | I |  |  |  | like a madman | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Experiencer woman=Result |
| 2 | **is a** | present | the woman and the prop | the prop |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **stay** | infinitive |  |  |  |  | of my old age |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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