---
title: But that was not possible, of course; and besides, what sort of comp… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But that was not possible, of course; and besides, what sort of companion could an ugly thing like him be to those beautiful beings? Who acts: that, besides. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 9, 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/pg3027/9/85/)

<!-- 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 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/9/) / 85

# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 9, sentence 85

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But that was not possible, of course; and besides, what sort of companion could an ugly thing like him be to those beautiful beings?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** that, besides · **What happens:** not be, thing, be, sort · **To what, where:** companion

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (that, besides), 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:pg3027:9:85
# text = But that was not possible, of course; and besides, what sort of companion could an ugly thing like him be to those beautiful beings?
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	possible	possible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	obl	_	_
8	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
11	besides	beside	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	what	what	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	14	det	_	_
14	sort	sort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	companion	companion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
17	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
18	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	ugly	ugly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
21	like	like	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nmod	_	_
23	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	27	det	_	_
26	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	beings	being	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | that |  |  |  |  | possible *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **thing** | could | besides and what sort of companion |  |  |  |  | like neck | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** | infinitive | besides and what sort of companion *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to that beautiful beings | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **sort** |  |  | companion |  |  |  |  | nom sort «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 84](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/9/84/)
- next →: [sentence 86](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/9/86/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/9/)