---
title: He thought for some minutes, and then said: “My honoured father, wha… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He thought for some minutes, and then said: “My honoured father, what can be better than the happiness of being your son, and what nobler than the riches of your love. Who acts: Labakan, honoured father, your. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 35, wi
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 35, sentence 82

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He thought for some minutes, and then said: “My honoured father, what can be better than the happiness of being your son, and what nobler than the riches of your love.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Labakan, honoured father, your · **What happens:** think, say, honour, be, love · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 35. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Labakan, honoured father, your), 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:pg2435:35:82
# text = He thought for some minutes, and then said: “My honoured father, what can be better than the happiness of being your son, and what nobler than the riches of your love.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	for	for	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	5	det	_	_
5	minutes	minute	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	9	advmod	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
13	honoured	honour	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	amod	_	_
14	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	obl	_	_
17	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	cop	_	_
19	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	9	parataxis	_	_
20	than	than	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	happiness	happiness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	cop	_	_
25	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
29	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	30	nsubj	_	_
30	nobler	noble	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	19	conj	_	_
31	than	than	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	riches	rich	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obl	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	love	love	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Labakan |  |  |  | minute |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Labakan *not said here* |  |  |  | then |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **honour** *in a quote* | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | can | My honoured father |  |  |  |  | than the happiness; good *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** *in a quote* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | of your son | tree rules |
| 6 | **be** *in a quote* |  |  |  |  |  |  | than the riches of your love | tree rules |
| 7 | **love** *in a quote* |  | your |  |  |  |  |  | nom love «feeling transitive»: poss=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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