---
title: This was a very good thing, for otherwise they would have torn each… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: This was a very good thing, for otherwise they would have torn each other in pieces, merely because the one was in front of the other. Who acts: This, good thing, one. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Steadfast Tin-soldier, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/50/138/)

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Steadfast Tin-soldier, sentence 138

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This was a very good thing, for otherwise they would have torn each other in pieces, merely because the one was in front of the other.

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**Who acts:** This, good thing, one · **What happens:** be, tear · **To what, where:** good thing, suitors, pieces, front

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Steadfast Tin-soldier. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (This, good thing, one), 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:pg640:50:138
# text = This was a very good thing, for otherwise they would have torn each other in pieces, merely because the one was in front of the other.
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
9	otherwise	otherwise	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	aux	_	_
13	torn	tear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	acl:relcl	_	_
14	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	15	det	_	_
15	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	obj	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
19	merely	merely	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
20	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | This | a good thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **tear** | would · perfect · passive | a good thing *not said here* | suitors *= suitor* |  | pieces |  | otherwise *property* | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Patient other=Result |
| 3 | **is** | past | the one |  |  | front |  | of the other; merely *property* | tree rules |

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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 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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