---
title: ‘Alas!’ said the man, ‘my wife says I ought to have kept you and wis… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Alas!’ said the man, ‘my wife says I ought to have kept you and wished something from you. Who acts: wife, I. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of the Fisherman and His Wife, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Story of the Fisherman and His Wife, sentence 27

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‘Alas!’ said the man, ‘my wife says I ought to have kept you and wished something from you.

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**Who acts:** wife, I · **What happens:** say, keep, wish · **To what, where:** man, you, something · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (wife, 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:pg7277:54:27
# text = ‘Alas!’ said the man, ‘my wife says I ought to have kept you and wished something from you.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Alas	alas	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
14	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
16	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	aux	_	_
17	kept	keep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	ccomp	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	wished	wish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
21	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	20	obj	_	_
22	from	from	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the man |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent man=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | my wife |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **keep** | ought · perfect | I | you |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Theme |
| 4 | **wish** | past | I *not said here* | something |  |  |  | from you | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot something=Theme |

<!-- .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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