---
title: ‘I do not know what they may contain, but as they are of no use to m… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I do not know what they may contain, but as they are of no use to me, you are welcome to have them for a trifle.’ Who acts: I, Caliph, you. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Caliph Stork, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Story of Caliph Stork, sentence 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘I do not know what they may contain, but as they are of no use to me, you are welcome to have them for a trifle.’

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**Who acts:** I, Caliph, you · **What happens:** not know, contain, be, have · **To what, where:** me, Caliph · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Caliph Stork. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, Caliph, you), 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:pg7277:7:17
# text = ‘I do not know what they may contain, but as they are of no use to me, you are welcome to have them for a trifle.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	9	obj	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	contain	contain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
14	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	17	det	_	_
17	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	advcl	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
23	welcome	welcome	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	advcl	_	_
26	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	for	for	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	trifle	trifle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** | present · do-support | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **contain** | may | Caliph |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot what=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | present | Caliph |  | me |  |  | of no use | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | present | you |  |  |  |  | welcome *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **have** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | Caliph |  |  |  | for a trifle | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |

<!-- .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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