---
title: ‘Your counsel,’ said the Emperor, ‘is excellent, and, as it happens,… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Your counsel,’ said the Emperor, ‘is excellent, and, as it happens, I’ve got the very thing for him to do. Who acts: counsel, ‘, it, I. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Mermaid, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Golden Mermaid, sentence 34

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Your counsel,’ said the Emperor, ‘is excellent, and, as it happens, I’ve got the very thing for him to do.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** counsel, ‘, it, I · **What happens:** say, be, happen, have, get, do · **To what, where:** Emperor, thing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Mermaid. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (counsel, ‘, it, I), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg7277:52:34
# text = ‘Your counsel,’ said the Emperor, ‘is excellent, and, as it happens, I’ve got the very thing for him to do.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	counsel	counsel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Emperor	Emperor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	‘	‘	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
12	excellent	excellent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
16	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	happens	happen	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
20	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	’ve	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
22	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	very	very	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
26	for	for	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Your counsel |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | present | ‘ | the Emperor *not said here* |  |  |  | excellent *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **happen** | present | it |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **have** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **get** | past | Your counsel *not said here* | the thing |  |  |  | for emperor | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent thing=Theme for he=Beneficiary |
| 6 | **do** | to-infinitive | Your counsel *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=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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