---
title: “After all, the most foolish thing in the world one can do is to kee… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “After all, the most foolish thing in the world one can do is to keep the boy here in exactly the place in which the mermaid will seek him. Who acts: mermaid. 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 clau
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 17, sentence 99

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“After all, the most foolish thing in the world one can do is to keep the boy here in exactly the place in which the mermaid will seek him.

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**Who acts:** mermaid · **What happens:** be, seek · **To what, where:** place, Boy

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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 (mermaid), 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:pg3282:17:99
# text = “After all, the most foolish thing in the world one can do is to keep the boy here in exactly the place in which the mermaid will seek him.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	After	after	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	7	advmod	_	_
7	foolish	foolish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
13	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	do	do	AUX	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
15	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	keep	keep	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	exactly	exactly	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	30	obl	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	mermaid	mermaid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
29	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	seek	seek	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	acl:relcl	_	_
31	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | to-infinitive · do-support |  |  |  | the place; here |  | keep *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **seek** *in a quote* | future | the mermaid | Boy |  | the place |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent he=Theme in which=Location |

<!-- .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.

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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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