---
title: “Well, my son,” said the Warlock Merlin, “there are but two things,… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Well, my son,” said the Warlock Merlin, “there are but two things, simple they may seem, but hard they are to do. Who acts: son, man. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Childe Rowland, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Childe Rowland, sentence 21

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“Well, my son,” said the Warlock Merlin, “there are but two things, simple they may seem, but hard they are to do.

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**Who acts:** son, man · **What happens:** say, seem, be, do · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Childe Rowland. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (son, man), 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:pg7439:24:21
# text = “Well, my son,” said the Warlock Merlin, “there are but two things, simple they may seem, but hard they are to do.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	Warlock	Warlock	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	Merlin	Merlin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	15	expl	_	_
15	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	acl:relcl	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nummod	_	_
18	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	simple	simple	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	seem	seem	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	_
27	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
28	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | my son |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **seem** *in a quote* | may | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present | man |  |  |  |  | hard *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **do** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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:** «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7439 (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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