---
title: We never get anything but hard dry crusts to eat—why, the dog under… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: We never get anything but hard dry crusts to eat—why, the dog under the table is better off than we are. Who acts: We, dog. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Brother and Sister, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Brother and Sister, sentence 3

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We never get anything but hard dry crusts to eat—why, the dog under the table is better off than we are.

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**Who acts:** We, dog · **What happens:** not get, eat, be · **To what, where:** anything

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Brother and Sister. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (We, dog), 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:pg540:10:3
# text = We never get anything but hard dry crusts to eat—why, the dog under the table is better off than we are.
1	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	3	advmod	_	_
3	get	get	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	3	obj	_	_
5	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
6	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
7	dry	dry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	crusts	crust	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
16	under	under	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
19	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	conj	_	_
21	off	off	ADP	RP	_	20	compound:prt	_	_
22	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	are	be	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **get** | present | We | anything |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer anything=Stimulus |
| 2 | **eat** | to-infinitive | We *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | present | the dog under the table |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** | present | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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