---
title: “Was it not pleasanter to play for a couple of hours on the pipes th… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Was it not pleasanter to play for a couple of hours on the pipes than to be stirring sauces all day long? Who acts: it. 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.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 11, sentence 71

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“Was it not pleasanter to play for a couple of hours on the pipes than to be stirring sauces all day long?

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**Who acts:** it · **What happens:** not be, play, stir · **To what, where:** pipes, sauces

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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: who acts (it), 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:pg2435:11:71
# text = “Was it not pleasanter to play for a couple of hours on the pipes than to be stirring sauces all day long?
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	pleasanter	pleasant	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	couple	couple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	hours	hour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	pipes	pipe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
16	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	aux	_	_
19	stirring	stir	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
20	sauces	sauce	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
21	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	22	det	_	_
22	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl:unmarked	_	_
23	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | past | it |  |  |  |  | pleasant *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **play** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  |  | the pipes |  | for a couple of hours | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP PP.predicate»: agent=Agent for couple=Eventuality |
| 3 | **stir** *in a quote* | to-infinitive · progressive |  | sauces |  |  | day | long *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus sauce=Experiencer |

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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:** «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.

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