---
title: But better had it been if you had first asked your father's leave be… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But better had it been if you had first asked your father's leave before you made it. Who acts: you. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 29, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 29, sentence 91

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But better had it been if you had first asked your father's leave before you made it.

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** have, ask, make · **To what, where:** vow, you

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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 (you), 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:pg3027:29:91
# text = But better had it been if you had first asked your father's leave before you made it.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	better	well	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	3	advmod	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	aux:pass	_	_
6	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	10	advmod	_	_
10	asked	ask	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
11	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	's	's	PART	POS	_	12	case	_	_
14	leave	leave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
15	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	ccomp	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past |  | vow |  |  |  | well *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* *a condition, not said to happen* | participle · perfect · passive |  | you |  |  |  | first *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **make** | past | you | vow |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Product |

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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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