---
title: ‘Mortal men have but little wisdom, and can give you no help, but th… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Mortal men have but little wisdom, and can give you no help, but the birds of the air would be better guides to you if you could learn their language. Who acts: Mortal men, birds, you. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon of the North(2), with its dependency tree and the
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Dragon of the North(2), sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Mortal men have but little wisdom, and can give you no help, but the birds of the air would be better guides to you if you could learn their language.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Mortal men, birds, you · **What happens:** have, give, be, learn · **To what, where:** little wisdom, help, you, better guides, language

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon of the North(2). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Mortal men, birds, you), 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:pg640:5:18
# text = ‘Mortal men have but little wisdom, and can give you no help, but the birds of the air would be better guides to you if you could learn their language.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Mortal	mortal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	wisdom	wisdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
12	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	11	iobj	_	_
13	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	14	det	_	_
14	help	help	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nsubj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
22	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
23	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	cop	_	_
24	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	25	amod	_	_
25	guides	guide	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	iobj	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	25	nmod	_	_
28	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
29	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	learn	learn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
32	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	language	language	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | Mortal men | little wisdom |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wisdom=Patient |
| 2 | **give** | can | Mortal men *not said here* | no help | you |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** | would | the birds of the air | better guides | you |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **learn** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | you | birds's language |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent language=Topic |

<!-- .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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