---
title: What oath would he not have taken so as to clasp his wife and child… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: What oath would he not have taken so as to clasp his wife and child in is arms? Who acts: oath. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 29, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/29/27/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Orange Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/) / [Opening, part 29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/29/) / 27

# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 29, sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What oath would he not have taken so as to clasp his wife and child in is arms?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** oath · **What happens:** not take, clasp, be · **To what, where:** arms

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 29. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (oath), 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:pg3027:29:27
# text = What oath would he not have taken so as to clasp his wife and child in is arms?
1	What	what	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	2	det	_	_
2	oath	oath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
6	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
8	so	so	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
9	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	clasp	clasp	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod:poss	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
17	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	arms	arm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **take** | would · perfect | what oath |  |  |  |  |  | vn require-103 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Precondition |
| 2 | **clasp** | to-infinitive | what oath *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn tape-22.4 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **is a** | present |  | oath's wife and child's arms |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/29/26/)
- next →: [sentence 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/29/28/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/29/)