---
title: "You may say what you like," says the host, "but a handsomer wife th… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: "You may say what you like," says the host, "but a handsomer wife than mine does not exist in the whole world!" Who acts: You, host. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY, part 2, sentence 173

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"You may say what you like," says the host, "but a handsomer wife than mine does not exist in the whole world!"

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**Who acts:** You, host · **What happens:** say, like, not exist · **To what, where:** whole world · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (You, host), 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:pg22373:12:173
# text = "You may say what you like," says the host, "but a handsomer wife than mine does not exist in the whole world!"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
5	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	obj	_	_
6	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	like	like	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
10	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	host	host	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
14	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	handsomer	handsome	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	18	amod	_	_
18	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	_
19	than	than	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	mine	my	PRON	PRP	Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod	_	_
21	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
23	exist	exist	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	23	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | may | You |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic |
| 2 | **like** *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 3 | **say** *speech: express* | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **not** **exist** *in a quote* | present · do-support | the host but a handsomer wife than mine |  |  | the whole world |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in world=Location |

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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:** «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Project Gutenberg book 22373 (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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