---
title: What good would it do him to be rich, or handsome, or to possess all… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: What good would it do him to be rich, or handsome, or to possess all the kingdoms of the world if he were wicked? Who acts: door, king. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Darling, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Prince Darling, sentence 20

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What good would it do him to be rich, or handsome, or to possess all the kingdoms of the world if he were wicked?

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**Who acts:** door, king · **What happens:** do, be, possess · **To what, where:** king, kingdoms

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Darling. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (door, king), 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:pg503:39:20
# text = What good would it do him to be rich, or handsome, or to possess all the kingdoms of the world if he were wicked?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	obj	_	_
2	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	1	amod	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
8	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	cop	_	_
9	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	handsome	handsome	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	possess	possess	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
17	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	19	det:predet	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	kingdoms	kingdom	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
23	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
26	wicked	wicked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | would | door | king |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | to-infinitive | door *not said here* |  |  |  |  | rich *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | door *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **possess** | to-infinitive | door *not said here* | all kingdoms of the world |  |  |  |  | vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot kingdom=Theme |
| 5 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | king |  |  |  |  | wicked *property* | tree rules |

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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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