---
title: But as he went, he felt quite frightened, and he thought to himself,… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But as he went, he felt quite frightened, and he thought to himself, ‘This can’t be right; to be emperor is too ambitious; the flounder will be tired out at last.’ Who acts: emperor, This, flounder. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of the Fisherman and His Wife, with it
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Story of the Fisherman and His Wife, sentence 119

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But as he went, he felt quite frightened, and he thought to himself, ‘This can’t be right; to be emperor is too ambitious; the flounder will be tired out at last.’

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**Who acts:** emperor, This, flounder · **What happens:** go, feel, frighten, think, not be, be · **To what, where:** emperor, last

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of the Fisherman and His Wife. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (emperor, This, flounder), 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:pg7277:54:119
# text = But as he went, he felt quite frightened, and he thought to himself, ‘This can’t be right; to be emperor is too ambitious; the flounder will be tired out at last.’
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
17	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	nsubj	_	_
19	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
21	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	cop	_	_
22	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
25	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	cop	_	_
26	emperor	emperor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
27	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
28	too	too	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	ambitious	ambitious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	35	punct	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	flounder	flounder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nsubj	_	_
33	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
34	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	cop	_	_
35	tired	tired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	_
36	out	out	ADP	RP	_	35	compound:prt	_	_
37	at	at	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | emperor |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **feel** | past | emperor |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **frighten** | participle | emperor *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | past | emperor |  | emperor |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **not** **is** | can | This |  |  |  |  | right *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | emperor |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **is** | present | emperor |  |  |  |  | ambitious *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **is** | future | the flounder |  |  | last |  | tired *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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