---
title: ‘Oh! if I were only a great tree like the others!’ sighed the little… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Oh! if I were only a great tree like the others!’ sighed the little fir-tree, ‘then I could stretch out my branches far and wide and look out into the great world! Who acts: I, great tree. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 11, with its dependency tree and
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 11, sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Oh! if I were only a great tree like the others!’ sighed the little fir-tree, ‘then I could stretch out my branches far and wide and look out into the great world!

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**Who acts:** I, great tree · **What happens:** be, sigh, stretch out, look out · **To what, where:** great tree, little fir tree, branches, great world

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, great tree), 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:pg5615:11:2
# text = ‘Oh! if I were only a great tree like the others!’ sighed the little fir-tree, ‘then I could stretch out my branches far and wide and look out into the great world!
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	10	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
7	only	only	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
11	like	like	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
16	sighed	sigh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
18	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
19	fir	fir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
23	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	27	advmod	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	stretch	stretch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	parataxis	_	_
28	out	out	ADP	RP	_	27	compound:prt	_	_
29	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obj	_	_
31	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	27	advmod	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	wide	wide	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	conj	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	conj	_	_
36	out	out	ADP	RP	_	35	compound:prt	_	_
37	into	into	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
39	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
40	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | I | a great tree |  |  |  | like the others | tree rules |
| 2 | **sigh** | past | a great tree | the little fir tree |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tree=Topic |
| 3 | **stretch out** | could | I | my branches |  |  | then | far *property* | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent branch=Patient |
| 4 | **look out** | infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  | the great world |  |  | vn caring-75.2-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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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