---
title: Oh, how much better a servant he was than any of the little girls th… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Oh, how much better a servant he was than any of the little girls the bride had refused to bring with her! Who acts: little girls. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 21, sentence 45

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Oh, how much better a servant he was than any of the little girls the bride had refused to bring with her!

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**Who acts:** little girls · **What happens:** refuse, not bring · **To what, where:** bride

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little girls), 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:pg3027:21:45
# text = Oh, how much better a servant he was than any of the little girls the bride had refused to bring with her!
1	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
3	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
4	much	much	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
10	than	than	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	7	nmod	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	bride	bride	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	refused	refuse	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	acl:relcl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	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 | **refuse** | past · perfect · passive | the little girls *not said here* | the bride |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **bring** | to-infinitive | the little girls *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with girl | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=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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