---
title: ‘It was in vain that I replied as before, and with the strongest des… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘It was in vain that I replied as before, and with the strongest desire to be taken at my word, “Nothing at all.” Who acts: gallery, I, my. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 3, sentence 79

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‘It was in vain that I replied as before, and with the strongest desire to be taken at my word, “Nothing at all.”

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**Who acts:** gallery, I, my · **What happens:** be, reply, take, word · **To what, where:** word

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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 (gallery, I, my), 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:pg7277:38:79
# text = ‘It was in vain that I replied as before, and with the strongest desire to be taken at my word, “Nothing at all.”
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
9	as	as	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	before	before	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	strongest	strong	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	16	amod	_	_
16	desire	desire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	22	appos	_	_
26	at	at	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | gallery |  |  |  |  | vain *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | I |  |  |  |  | before *property* | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **take** | to-infinitive · passive | gallery *not said here* |  |  | my word |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: at word=Asset |
| 4 | **word** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: 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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