---
title: ‘However, it is better than nothing, and I will bake him with bread… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘However, it is better than nothing, and I will bake him with bread crumbs and have him for supper.’ Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 22, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/22/114/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 22, sentence 114

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‘However, it is better than nothing, and I will bake him with bread crumbs and have him for supper.’

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** be, bake, have · **To what, where:** brother

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 22. 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:pg5615:22:114
# text = ‘However, it is better than nothing, and I will bake him with bread crumbs and have him for supper.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	However	however	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	expl	_	_
5	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
7	than	than	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	bake	bake	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	parataxis	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	crumbs	crumb	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	supper	supper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | than nothing; good, however *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **bake** | future | I | brother |  |  |  | with bread crumbs | vn cooking-45.3 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent he=Patient with crumb=Instrument |
| 3 | **have** | present | I *not said here* | brother |  |  |  | for supper | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=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 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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