---
title: ‘If your son is as wonderfully clever as you say, and if there is no… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘If your son is as wonderfully clever as you say, and if there is nothing in the world that he cannot do, let him build a magnificent castle, just opposite my palace windows, in four and twenty hours. Who acts: son, you, nothing. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Magic Ring, 
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Magic Ring, sentence 106

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘If your son is as wonderfully clever as you say, and if there is nothing in the world that he cannot do, let him build a magnificent castle, just opposite my palace windows, in four and twenty hours.

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**Who acts:** son, you, nothing · **What happens:** be, say, not do, let, build · **To what, where:** son, magnificent castle, palace windows · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Magic Ring. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (son, you, nothing), 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:pg640:33:106
# text = ‘If your son is as wonderfully clever as you say, and if there is nothing in the world that he cannot do, let him build a magnificent castle, just opposite my palace windows, in four and twenty hours.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
3	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
5	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
6	as	as	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	wonderfully	wonderfully	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	clever	clever	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
9	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
14	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	16	expl	_	_
16	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	advcl	_	_
17	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	16	nsubj	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
27	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	build	build	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	magnificent	magnificent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
34	just	just	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
35	opposite	opposite	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	_
36	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
37	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	compound	_	_
38	windows	window	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
40	in	in	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
41	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	38	appos	_	_
42	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
43	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	44	nummod	_	_
44	hours	hour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	41	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | your son |  |  |  |  | clever, wonderfully *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **be** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | nothing |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **do** | can | son |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **let** | infinitive | your son *not said here* | son |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **build** | infinitive | son *not said here* | a magnificent castle |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset castle=Product |
| 7 | **be** |  | your son *not said here* | my palace windows |  |  |  |  | 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.

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**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.

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