---
title: And the world would be a great deal better if men, in their greed, d… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And the world would be a great deal better if men, in their greed, did not seek to snatch every thing for themselves, instead of leaving something as a thankoffering to the giver of the blessings. Who acts: world, men. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale of the Tontlawald, w
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, A Tale of the Tontlawald, sentence 126

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the world would be a great deal better if men, in their greed, did not seek to snatch every thing for themselves, instead of leaving something as a thankoffering to the giver of the blessings.

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**Who acts:** world, men · **What happens:** be, not seek, snatch, leave, thankoffer · **To what, where:** thing, something

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale of the Tontlawald. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (world, men), 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:pg641:2:126
# text = And the world would be a great deal better if men, in their greed, did not seek to snatch every thing for themselves, instead of leaving something as a thankoffering to the giver of the blessings.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
4	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	cop	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	deal	deal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
10	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
11	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	greed	greed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
17	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	seek	seek	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	csubj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	snatch	snatch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	23	det	_	_
23	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	for	for	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=SCONJ	29	mark	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	fixed	_	_
29	leaving	leave	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	advcl	_	_
30	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	29	obj	_	_
31	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	thankoffering	thankoffer	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	29	advcl	_	_
34	to	to	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	giver	giver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	blessings	blessing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | would | the world |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **seek** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · do-support | men and dishes's greed |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **snatch** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | men and dishes's greed *not said here* | every thing |  |  |  | for dishes *= dish* | vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent thing=Theme for themselves=Beneficiary |
| 4 | **leave** | gerund | men and dishes's greed *not said here* | something |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent something=Theme |
| 5 | **thankoffer** | gerund | men and dishes's greed *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the giver of the blessings | 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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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