---
title: "My advice to you," said one of the guests, "is to keep the old key,… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "My advice to you," said one of the guests, "is to keep the old key, for it fits the lock better and you're more used to it." Who acts: advice, key, you. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Battle of the Birds, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Battle of the Birds, sentence 266

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"My advice to you," said one of the guests, "is to keep the old key, for it fits the lock better and you're more used to it."

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**Who acts:** advice, key, you · **What happens:** say, be, fit, use · **To what, where:** one, lock, key · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Battle of the Birds. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (advice, key, 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:pg7885:31:266
# text = "My advice to you," said one of the guests, "is to keep the old key, for it fits the lock better and you're more used to it."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	advice	advice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	csubj	_	_
9	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	guests	guest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
14	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	key	key	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	fits	fit	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	lock	lock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
27	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	24	xcomp	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
29	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	're	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
31	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	27	conj	_	_
32	used	use	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	31	acl	_	_
33	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | My advice to you | one of the guests |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent one=Topic |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  |  |  | keep *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **fit** *in a quote* | present | key | the lock |  |  |  | good *property* | vn adjust-26.9 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lock=Patient |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  | more *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **use** *in a quote* | participle |  |  | key |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «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:** «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7885 (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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