---
title: ‘If we could only manage to buy a cow and get a pig to fatten,’ grum… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘If we could only manage to buy a cow and get a pig to fatten,’ grumbled Houarn, ‘I would rent a bit of ground from the master, and then we could be married.’ Who acts: we, pig, I. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 33, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 33, sentence 81

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘If we could only manage to buy a cow and get a pig to fatten,’ grumbled Houarn, ‘I would rent a bit of ground from the master, and then we could be married.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** we, pig, I · **What happens:** manage, buy, get, fatten, grumble, rent · **To what, where:** cow, pig, Houarn, bit, master, we

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 33. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we, pig, I), 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:pg3454:33:81
# text = ‘If we could only manage to buy a cow and get a pig to fatten,’ grumbled Houarn, ‘I would rent a bit of ground from the master, and then we could be married.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
3	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	only	only	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	manage	manage	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	ccomp	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	buy	buy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	pig	pig	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	fatten	fatten	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
19	grumbled	grumble	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	Houarn	Houarn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	rent	rent	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	bit	bit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	_
30	from	from	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
35	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	39	advmod	_	_
36	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj:pass	_	_
37	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	39	aux	_	_
38	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	39	aux:pass	_	_
39	married	marry	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	39	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	39	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **manage** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **buy** | to-infinitive | we *not said here* | a cow |  |  |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cow=Theme |
| 3 | **get** | infinitive | we *not said here* | a pig |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **fatten** | to-infinitive | a pig *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **grumble** *speech: other* | past |  | Houarn |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **rent** | would | I | a bit of ground |  | the master |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent bit=Theme from master=Source |
| 7 | **marry** | could · passive |  | we |  |  | then |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «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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