---
title: “I am Tree Comber,” he answered proudly; “and the greatest wish of m… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “I am Tree Comber,” he answered proudly; “and the greatest wish of my life is to wrestle with Shepherd Paul.” Who acts: man, greatest wish, life. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 31, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/31/27/)

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 31, sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“I am Tree Comber,” he answered proudly; “and the greatest wish of my life is to wrestle with Shepherd Paul.”

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**Who acts:** man, greatest wish, life · **What happens:** be, answer, wish · **To what, where:** Tree Comber · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 31. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, greatest wish, life), 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:pg2435:31:27
# text = “I am Tree Comber,” he answered proudly; “and the greatest wish of my life is to wrestle with Shepherd Paul.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	Tree	Tree	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	Comber	comber	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	proudly	proudly	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	greatest	great	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	16	amod	_	_
16	wish	wish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
20	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	wrestle	wrestle	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	Shepherd	shepherd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	_
25	Paul	Paul	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | man | Tree Comber |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | man |  |  |  |  | proudly *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present | the greatest wish of my life |  |  |  |  | with Shepherd Paul; wrestle *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **wish** *in a quote* |  | my life |  |  |  |  |  | nom wish «feeling intransitive»: of=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:** «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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