---
title: If he has not, the less he says in his preface the better. — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: If he has not, the less he says in his preface the better. Who acts: author. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 1, sentence 11

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If he has not, the less he says in his preface the better.

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**Who acts:** author · **What happens:** not have, say, preface · **To what, where:** preface · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (author), 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:pg3027:1:11
# text = If he has not, the less he says in his preface the better.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	9	advmod	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	preface	preface	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	12	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **have** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | author |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | author |  |  | author's preface |  | less *property* | vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP PP.manner»: agent=Agent in preface=Manner |
| 3 | **preface** |  | author |  |  |  |  |  | nom preface «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

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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 Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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