---
title: If, therefore, you want a son-in-law who is greater than the whole w… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: If, therefore, you want a son-in-law who is greater than the whole world, seek him among the rats.” Who acts: you, son. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 17, 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/pg3282/17/78/)

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 17, sentence 78

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If, therefore, you want a son-in-law who is greater than the whole world, seek him among the rats.”

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**Who acts:** you, son · **What happens:** want, be, seek · **To what, where:** son, rats

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, son), 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:pg3282:17:78
# text = If, therefore, you want a son-in-law who is greater than the whole world, seek him among the rats.”
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	6	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	want	want	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	law	law	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
13	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
15	greater	great	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	6	xcomp	_	_
16	than	than	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	seek	seek	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	among	among	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	rats	rat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Pivot |
| 2 | **is** *not said to happen* | present | a son |  |  |  |  | than the whole world; great *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **seek** | infinitive | you *not said here* | son |  | the rats |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent he=Theme among rat=Location |

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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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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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