---
title: It seems hardly possible that any man should live like Peridor for f… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It seems hardly possible that any man should live like Peridor for fifteen years plunged in such depth of grief, and most likely he would have died too if it had not been for the fairies. Who acts: It, man, grief. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 2, with
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/11/14/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Yellow Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/) / [The Donkey Cabbage, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/11/) / 14

# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Donkey Cabbage, part 2, sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It seems hardly possible that any man should live like Peridor for fifteen years plunged in such depth of grief, and most likely he would have died too if it had not been for the fairies.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** It, man, grief · **What happens:** seem, live, plunge, die, not be · **To what, where:** fifteen years

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, man, grief), 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:pg640:11:14
# text = It seems hardly possible that any man should live like Peridor for fifteen years plunged in such depth of grief, and most likely he would have died too if it had not been for the fairies.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	seems	seem	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	possible	possible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	xcomp	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
6	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	7	det	_	_
7	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
8	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	live	live	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
10	like	like	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	Peridor	Peridor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
12	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	fifteen	fifteen	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nummod	_	_
14	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
15	plunged	plunge	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	acl	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	depth	depth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	grief	grief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
23	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	24	advmod	_	_
24	likely	likely	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
26	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	aux	_	_
28	died	die	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
29	too	too	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
30	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
32	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
33	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	37	advmod	_	_
34	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	37	cop	_	_
35	for	for	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	fairies	fairy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | present | It |  |  |  |  | possible *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **live** | should | any man |  |  |  | year | like Peridor | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **plunge** | participle |  | fifteen years *not said here* |  |  |  | in such depth of grief | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in depth=Attribute |
| 4 | **die** | would · perfect | man |  |  |  |  | likely *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 5 | **not** **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | grief |  |  |  |  | for the fairies | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/11/13/)
- next →: [sentence 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/11/15/)
- ↑ back to [The Donkey Cabbage, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/11/)