---
title: What good was it that I sent her more than fifty pounds of sweetmeat… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: What good was it that I sent her more than fifty pounds of sweetmeats, and as much again of the best sugar, not to mention two Westphalia hams? Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess Mayblossom, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Princess Mayblossom, part 1, sentence 77

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What good was it that I sent her more than fifty pounds of sweetmeats, and as much again of the best sugar, not to mention two Westphalia hams?

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** be, send, not mention · **To what, where:** enemy, fifty pounds, Queen, two Westphalia hams

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess Mayblossom, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I), 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:pg540:3:77
# text = What good was it that I sent her more than fifty pounds of sweetmeats, and as much again of the best sugar, not to mention two Westphalia hams?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	2	nsubj	_	_
2	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
8	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp|ExtPos=ADV	11	advmod	_	_
10	than	than	ADP	IN	_	9	fixed	_	_
11	fifty	fifty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	pounds	pound	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	sweetmeats	sweetmeat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	as	as	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	_
19	again	again	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	23	amod	_	_
23	sugar	sugar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	mention	mention	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
28	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	30	nummod	_	_
29	Westphalia	Westphalia	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	30	compound	_	_
30	hams	ham	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | enemy |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **send** | past | I | fifty pounds of sweetmeats | Queen |  |  |  | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Destination pound=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **mention** *speech: other* | to-infinitive |  | two Westphalia hams |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent ham=Topic |

<!-- .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 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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