---
title: ‘I am of no use except to have boots thrown at my head.’ — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I am of no use except to have boots thrown at my head.’ Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Allerleirauh; Or, the Many-furred Creature, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Allerleirauh; Or, the Many-furred Creature, sentence 58

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‘I am of no use except to have boots thrown at my head.’

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** be, have, throw · **To what, where:** boots, head

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Allerleirauh; Or, the Many-furred Creature. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (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:pg7277:42:58
# text = ‘I am of no use except to have boots thrown at my head.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	6	det	_	_
6	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	except	except	ADP	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	csubj	_	_
10	boots	boot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
11	thrown	throw	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	acl	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | I |  |  |  |  | of no use | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | to-infinitive |  | boots |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent boot=Patient |
| 3 | **throw** | participle |  | boots *not said here* |  | my head |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent at head=Destination |

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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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