---
title: Was there ever such a piece of folly as to exchange your pipes for a… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Was there ever such a piece of folly as to exchange your pipes for a scullion’s ladle? A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/11/61/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Crimson Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/) / [The Crimson Fairy Book, part 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/11/) / 61

# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 11, sentence 61

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Was there ever such a piece of folly as to exchange your pipes for a scullion’s ladle?

<!-- .vintro -->
**What happens:** be, exchange · **To what, where:** pipes

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg2435:11:61
# text = Was there ever such a piece of folly as to exchange your pipes for a scullion’s ladle?
1	Was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	cop	_	_
2	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	0	root	_	_
3	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	2	advmod	_	_
4	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	6	det:predet	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	folly	folly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
9	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	exchange	exchange	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
12	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	pipes	pipe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	scullion	scullion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	’s	's	PART	POS	_	16	case	_	_
18	ladle	ladle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  | ever | there *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **exchange** | to-infinitive |  | your pipes |  |  |  | for a scullion's ladle | vn exchange-13.6.1 «NP V NP PP.co-theme»: agent=Agent pipe=Theme for ladle=Co-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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 60](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/11/60/)
- next →: [sentence 62](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/11/62/)
- ↑ back to [The Crimson Fairy Book, part 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/11/)