---
title: Woe to him who chooses the middle path! if he had a thousand lives h… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Woe to him who chooses the middle path! if he had a thousand lives he would not save one; it is very hazardous; it leads to the Caucasus, and is an endless road. Who acts: Woe, man, thousand. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 2, with its dependency tree 
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 2, sentence 117

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Woe to him who chooses the middle path! if he had a thousand lives he would not save one; it is very hazardous; it leads to the Caucasus, and is an endless road.

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**Who acts:** Woe, man, thousand · **What happens:** choose, have, live, not save, be, lead · **To what, where:** middle path, one, endless road

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Woe, man, thousand), 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:pg3282:2:117
# text = Woe to him who chooses the middle path! if he had a thousand lives he would not save one; it is very hazardous; it leads to the Caucasus, and is an endless road.
1	Woe	woe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
2	to	to	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	nmod	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	5	nsubj	_	_
5	chooses	choose	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	acl:relcl	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	middle	middle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	path	path	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
10	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	nsubj	_	_
15	lives	live	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	save	save	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	ccomp	_	_
20	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
24	very	very	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	hazardous	hazardous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	leads	lead	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	parataxis	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	Caucasus	Caucasus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
34	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	37	cop	_	_
35	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
36	endless	endless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **choose** | present | Woe to man | the middle path |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent path=Theme |
| 2 | **have** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **live** | present | a thousand |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **save** | would | man | one |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | present | Woe to man |  |  |  |  | hazardous *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **lead** | present | Woe |  |  |  |  | to the Caucasus | vn result-27.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Precondition to caucasus=Patient |
| 7 | **is a** | present |  | a endless road |  |  |  |  | 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.

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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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