---
title: For though you cannot tend cows, or divide the grain from the chaff,… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: For though you cannot tend cows, or divide the grain from the chaff, there may be other things that you can do better. Who acts: you, other things. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 11, 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/pg3027/11/42/)

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 11, sentence 42

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For though you cannot tend cows, or divide the grain from the chaff, there may be other things that you can do better.

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**Who acts:** you, other things · **What happens:** not tend, divide, be, do · **To what, where:** cows, grain, other things

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, 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 (you, other things), 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:pg3027:11:42
# text = For though you cannot tend cows, or divide the grain from the chaff, there may be other things that you can do better.
1	For	for	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
2	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	tend	tend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	_
7	cows	cow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	divide	divide	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	grain	grain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	from	from	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	chaff	chaff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	19	expl	_	_
18	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
20	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
22	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	25	obj	_	_
23	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	acl:relcl	_	_
26	better	well	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **tend** | can | you | cows |  |  |  |  | vn caring-75.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cow=Theme |
| 2 | **divide** | imperative | you *not said here* | the grain |  |  |  | from the chaff | vn separate-23.1-1 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent grain=Patient from chaff=Co-Patient |
| 3 | **be** | may | other things |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **do** | can | you | other things |  |  |  | well *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Eventuality |

<!-- .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 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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