--- title: ‘“Nothing at all, I assure you,” I replied in a tone which really ou… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: ‘“Nothing at all, I assure you,” I replied in a tone which really ought to have convinced them, but they went on to describe various employments, and tried to discover which of them would be most to my taste. Who acts: I, King, my. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Vivien a --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/38/20/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Green Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/) / [Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/38/) / 20 # The Green Fairy Book, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 3, sentence 20 ‘“Nothing at all, I assure you,” I replied in a tone which really ought to have convinced them, but they went on to describe various employments, and tried to discover which of them would be most to my taste. **Who acts:** I, King, my · **What happens:** assure, reply, convince, go on, describe, try · **To what, where:** Nothing, you, tone, various employments · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, 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 (I, King, my), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg7277:38:20 # text = ‘“Nothing at all, I assure you,” I replied in a tone which really ought to have convinced them, but they went on to describe various employments, and tried to discover which of them would be most to my taste. 1 ‘ ' PUNCT `` _ 8 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 2 “ " PUNCT `` _ 3 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 3 Nothing nothing PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Neg 8 obl _ _ 4 at at ADP IN _ 5 case _ _ 5 all all DET DT PronType=Tot 3 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 6 , , PUNCT , _ 3 punct _ _ 7 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 8 nsubj _ _ 8 assure assure VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 9 you you PRON PRP Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs 8 iobj _ SpaceAfter=No 10 , , PUNCT , _ 8 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 11 ” " PUNCT '' _ 8 punct _ _ 12 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 13 nsubj _ _ 13 replied reply VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 8 parataxis _ _ 14 in in ADP IN _ 16 case _ _ 15 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 16 det _ _ 16 tone tone NOUN NN Number=Sing 13 obl _ _ 17 which which PRON WDT PronType=Rel 22 obj _ _ 18 really really ADV RB _ 22 advmod _ _ 19 ought ought AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 22 aux _ _ 20 to to PART TO _ 22 mark _ _ 21 have have AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 22 aux _ _ 22 convinced convince VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 16 acl:relcl _ _ 23 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 22 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 24 , , PUNCT , _ 27 punct _ _ 25 but but CCONJ CC _ 27 cc _ _ 26 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 27 nsubj _ _ 27 went go VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 13 conj _ _ 28 on on ADV RB _ 27 advmod _ _ 29 to to PART TO _ 30 mark _ _ 30 describe describe VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 27 xcomp _ _ 31 various various ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 32 amod _ _ 32 employments employment NOUN NNS Number=Plur 30 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 33 , , PUNCT , _ 35 punct _ _ 34 and and CCONJ CC _ 35 cc _ _ 35 tried try VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 13 conj _ _ 36 to to PART TO _ 37 mark _ _ 37 discover discover VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 35 xcomp _ _ 38 which which PRON WDT PronType=Rel 43 obj _ _ 39 of of ADP IN _ 40 case _ _ 40 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 38 obl _ _ 41 would would AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 43 aux _ _ 42 be be AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 43 aux:pass _ _ 43 most many VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 37 ccomp _ _ 44 to to ADP IN _ 46 case _ _ 45 my my PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 46 nmod:poss _ _ 46 taste taste NOUN NN Number=Sing 43 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 47 . . PUNCT . _ 8 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **assure** *in a quote* | present | I | Nothing | you | | | | vn advise-37.9 «NP V NP.recipient that S»: agent=Agent you=Recipient clause=Topic | | 2 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | I | | | a tone | | | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 3 | **convince** | ought · perfect | I *not said here* | a tone | | | | | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Stimulus which=Experiencer they=Result | | 4 | **go on** | past | King | | | | | | vn begin-55.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | | 5 | **describe** | to-infinitive | King *not said here* | various employments | | | | | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent employment=Theme | | 6 | **try** | past | I *not said here* | | | | | | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | | 7 | **discover** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | | | | | | vn discover-84-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 8 | **many** | would · passive | I *not said here* | | | | | to my taste | tree rules | | 9 | **taste** | | my | | | | | | nom taste «cognition transitive»: poss=agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/38/19/) - next →: [sentence 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/38/21/) - ↑ back to [Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/38/)