---
title: The advantage of possessing a great empire is not to be able to do t… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The advantage of possessing a great empire is not to be able to do the evil that one desires, but to do all the good that one possibly can.” Who acts: advantage, one. 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 46

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The advantage of possessing a great empire is not to be able to do the evil that one desires, but to do all the good that one possibly can.”

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**Who acts:** advantage, one · **What happens:** possess, not be, do, desire · **To what, where:** great empire, evil, good

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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 (advantage, one), 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:pg503:39:46
# text = The advantage of possessing a great empire is not to be able to do the evil that one desires, but to do all the good that one possibly can.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	advantage	advantage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
4	possessing	possess	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	empire	empire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
11	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	cop	_	_
12	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	evil	evil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	nsubj	_	_
19	desires	desire	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
24	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	26	det:predet	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	obj	_	_
27	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
28	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	30	nsubj	_	_
29	possibly	possibly	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
30	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	23	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **possess** | gerund | the advantage *not said here* | a great empire |  |  |  |  | vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot empire=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **is** | present | the advantage |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **do** | to-infinitive | the advantage *not said here* | the evil |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent evil=Eventuality |
| 4 | **desire** | present | one |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 5 | **do** | to-infinitive | the advantage *not said here* | all good |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent good=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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