---
title: “Well,” said the king, “you cannot refuse them; so the best thing yo… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Well,” said the king, “you cannot refuse them; so the best thing you can do is to send this unknown friend at once a present so magnificent that he is not likely to be able to send you anything better, and so will be ashamed to send anything at all!” Who acts: king, you, best thing, this. A sentenc
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 1, sentence 43

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Well,” said the king, “you cannot refuse them; so the best thing you can do is to send this unknown friend at once a present so magnificent that he is not likely to be able to send you anything better, and so will be ashamed to send anything at all!”

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**Who acts:** king, you, best thing, this · **What happens:** say, not refuse, do, be, friend, not be · **To what, where:** stories, best thing, present, anything, you, all · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, you, best thing, this), 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:pg3282:34:43
# text = “Well,” said the king, “you cannot refuse them; so the best thing you can do is to send this unknown friend at once a present so magnificent that he is not likely to be able to send you anything better, and so will be ashamed to send anything at all!”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	refuse	refuse	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
16	so	so	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	19	amod	_	_
19	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	acl:relcl	_	_
23	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	send	send	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
26	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	28	nsubj	_	_
27	unknown	unknown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
29	at	at	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
30	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	32	advmod	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	present	present	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
33	so	so	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
34	magnificent	magnificent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	advcl	_	_
35	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	39	mark	_	_
36	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
37	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	39	cop	_	_
38	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	39	advmod	_	_
39	likely	likely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	advcl	_	_
40	to	to	PART	TO	_	42	mark	_	_
41	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	42	cop	_	_
42	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	xcomp	_	_
43	to	to	PART	TO	_	44	mark	_	_
44	send	send	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	42	xcomp	_	_
45	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	44	iobj	_	_
46	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	44	obj	_	_
47	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	46	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
49	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	53	cc	_	_
50	so	so	ADV	RB	_	53	advmod	_	_
51	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	53	aux	_	_
52	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	53	cop	_	_
53	ashamed	ashamed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	parataxis	_	_
54	to	to	PART	TO	_	55	mark	_	_
55	send	send	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	53	xcomp	_	_
56	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	55	obj	_	_
57	at	at	ADP	IN	_	58	case	_	_
58	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	55	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	53	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
60	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	53	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: express* | past | the king |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **refuse** *in a quote* | can | you | stories *= story* |  |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 3 | **do** *in a quote* | can | you | the best thing *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Eventuality |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | present | the best thing |  |  | a present |  | send *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **friend** *in a quote* |  | this |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | present | king |  |  |  |  | likely *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **is** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **send** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | king *not said here* | anything | you |  |  |  | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent you=Destination anything=Theme |
| 9 | **is** *in a quote* | future |  |  |  |  |  | ashamed *property* | tree rules |
| 10 | **send** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  | anything |  | all |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Theme |

<!-- .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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