---
title: Must a powerful fairy like myself condescend to explain her doings t… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Must a powerful fairy like myself condescend to explain her doings to you who are no better than an ant by comparison, though you think yourself a great king?’ Who acts: powerful fairy, you. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Wonderful Sheep, part 2, with its dependency tree and
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Wonderful Sheep, part 2, sentence 25

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Must a powerful fairy like myself condescend to explain her doings to you who are no better than an ant by comparison, though you think yourself a great king?’

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**Who acts:** powerful fairy, you · **What happens:** condescend, explain, not be, think · **To what, where:** doings, you, yourself

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Wonderful Sheep, 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 (powerful fairy, you), 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:pg503:31:25
# text = Must a powerful fairy like myself condescend to explain her doings to you who are no better than an ant by comparison, though you think yourself a great king?’
1	Must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	powerful	powerful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	fairy	fairy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	like	like	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	4	nmod	_	_
7	condescend	condescend	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	explain	explain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	doings	doing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	9	obl	_	_
14	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	17	obl	_	_
15	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	no	no	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	9	parataxis	_	_
18	than	than	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	ant	ant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	by	by	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	comparison	comparison	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
25	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	think	think	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
27	yourself	yourself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	26	obj	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **condescend** | must | a powerful fairy like myself |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **explain** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | a powerful fairy like myself *not said here* | Miranda's doings | you |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent doing=Topic to you=Recipient |
| 3 | **not** **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | than a ant by comparison; good *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | present | you | yourself |  |  |  | a great king *obl:unmarked* | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot yourself=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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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