---
title: But the best thing that you can do is to go away again, for if not t… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the best thing that you can do is to go away again, for if not the Troll will devour you. Who acts: you, best thing, Troll. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Soria Moria Castle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Soria Moria Castle, sentence 20

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But the best thing that you can do is to go away again, for if not the Troll will devour you.

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**Who acts:** you, best thing, Troll · **What happens:** do, be, devour · **To what, where:** best thing, you

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Soria Moria Castle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, best thing, Troll), 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:pg540:6:20
# text = But the best thing that you can do is to go away again, for if not the Troll will devour you.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	4	amod	_	_
4	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj:outer	_	_
5	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	8	obj	_	_
6	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	acl:relcl	_	_
9	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
12	away	away	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
13	again	again	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
15	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
16	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	Troll	troll	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
20	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	devour	devour	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
22	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | can | you | the best thing |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Eventuality |
| 2 | **is** | present | the best thing |  |  |  | again | away, go *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **devour** *a condition, not said to happen* | future | the Troll | you |  |  |  |  | vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Patient |

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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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