---
title: Of course the king and queen would have preferred a daughter-in-law… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Of course the king and queen would have preferred a daughter-in-law with two hands, and one who could have brought riches with her, but they could not bear to say ‘No’ to their son, so they told him it should be as he chose, and that the wedding feast should be prepared immediately. Who acts: king, 
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 21, sentence 33

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Of course the king and queen would have preferred a daughter-in-law with two hands, and one who could have brought riches with her, but they could not bear to say ‘No’ to their son, so they told him it should be as he chose, and that the wedding feast should be prepared immediately.

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**Who acts:** king, riches, hand · **What happens:** prefer, bring, not bear, say, tell, be · **To what, where:** law, one, No, son, king, wedding feast · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, riches, hand), 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:pg3454:21:33
# text = Of course the king and queen would have preferred a daughter-in-law with two hands, and one who could have brought riches with her, but they could not bear to say ‘No’ to their son, so they told him it should be as he chose, and that the wedding feast should be prepared immediately.
1	Of	of	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
7	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	aux	_	_
9	preferred	prefer	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
11	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	law	law	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nummod	_	_
18	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
21	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
22	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	aux	_	_
25	brought	bring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	conj	_	_
26	riches	rich	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
30	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
31	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
32	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
33	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	34	advmod	_	_
34	bear	bear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	_
35	to	to	PART	TO	_	36	mark	_	_
36	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	xcomp	_	_
37	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	38	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	No	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	36	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	38	punct	_	_
40	to	to	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	42	nmod:poss	_	_
42	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
44	so	so	ADV	RB	_	46	advmod	_	_
45	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	nsubj	_	_
46	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
47	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	iobj	_	_
48	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	53	nsubj:outer	_	_
49	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	53	aux	_	_
50	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	53	cop	_	_
51	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	53	mark	_	_
52	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	53	nsubj	_	_
53	chose	choose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	46	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	62	punct	_	_
55	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	62	cc	_	_
56	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	62	mark	_	_
57	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	59	det	_	_
58	wedding	wedding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	59	compound	_	_
59	feast	feast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	62	nsubj:pass	_	_
60	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	62	aux	_	_
61	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	62	aux:pass	_	_
62	prepared	prepare	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	46	conj	_	_
63	immediately	immediately	ADV	RB	_	62	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
64	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **prefer** | would · perfect | the king and queen | a law |  |  |  | of course; with two hands | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer law=Stimulus |
| 2 | **bring** | could · perfect · passive |  | one |  |  |  | with daughter | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP NP»: subject=Destination rich=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **bear** | could | riches *= rich* |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | riches *= rich* *not said here* | No | riches's son |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent no=Topic to son=Recipient |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | riches *= rich* |  | king |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 6 | **is** | should | hand |  |  |  |  | choose *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **prepare** | should · passive |  | the wedding feast |  |  |  | immediately *property* | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: subject=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.

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**Text:** «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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