---
title: Well, they went to a great many masters, but all said that they coul… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Well, they went to a great many masters, but all said that they could make the lad as good as they were themselves, but better than that they could not make him. Who acts: food. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Farmer Weatherbeard, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Farmer Weatherbeard, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Well, they went to a great many masters, but all said that they could make the lad as good as they were themselves, but better than that they could not make him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** food · **What happens:** go, say, make, be, not make · **To what, where:** great many masters, lad, food, Jack · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Farmer Weatherbeard. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (food), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg540:43:4
# text = Well, they went to a great many masters, but all said that they could make the lad as good as they were themselves, but better than that they could not make him.
1	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
7	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
8	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	masters	master	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	13	advmod	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	lad	lad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	as	as	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	xcomp	_	_
22	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
25	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	parataxis	_	_
29	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
30	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	fixed	_	_
31	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
32	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
33	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	34	advmod	_	_
34	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	advcl	_	_
35	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | food |  |  | a great many masters |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to master=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | food *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **make** | could | food | the lad |  |  |  | good *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset lad=Product |
| 4 | **is a** | past | food | food |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **make** | could | food | Jack |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset he=Product |

<!-- .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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