---
title: ‘If I had them on I could find out which men in my kingdom are unfit… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘If I had them on I could find out which men in my kingdom are unfit for the offices they hold; I could distinguish the wise from the stupid! Who acts: I, men, clothes. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of the Emperor’s New Clothes(4). (4) Andersen, with its dependency tree
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, Story of the Emperor’s New Clothes(4). (4) Andersen, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘If I had them on I could find out which men in my kingdom are unfit for the offices they hold; I could distinguish the wise from the stupid!

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, men, clothes · **What happens:** have, find out, be, hold, distinguish · **To what, where:** clothes, offices, wise · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of the Emperor’s New Clothes(4). (4) Andersen. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, men, clothes), 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:pg640:6:8
# text = ‘If I had them on I could find out which men in my kingdom are unfit for the offices they hold; I could distinguish the wise from the stupid!
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	advcl	_	_
10	out	out	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
11	which	which	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	12	det	_	_
12	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	kingdom	kingdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
16	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
17	unfit	unfit	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	ccomp	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	offices	office	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	hold	hold	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
24	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	distinguish	distinguish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	obj	_	_
29	from	from	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	stupid	stupid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | I | clothes |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 2 | **find out** | could | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | present | which men in my kingdom |  |  |  |  | for the offices; unfit *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **hold** | present | clothes | the offices *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent office=Theme |
| 5 | **distinguish** | could | I | the wise |  |  |  | from the stupid | vn distinguish-23.5-1 «NP V NP.theme PP.co-theme»: agent=Agent wise=Theme from stupid=Co-Theme |

<!-- .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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