---
title: ‘This is better than firewood,’ said they; ‘it will bring us more mo… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘This is better than firewood,’ said they; ‘it will bring us more money. Who acts: This, neighbours, firewood. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Hassebu, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Hassebu, sentence 23

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‘This is better than firewood,’ said they; ‘it will bring us more money.

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**Who acts:** This, neighbours, firewood · **What happens:** be, say, bring · **To what, where:** more money, us · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Hassebu. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (This, neighbours, firewood), 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:pg641:30:23
# text = ‘This is better than firewood,’ said they; ‘it will bring us more money.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	9	ccomp	_	_
5	than	than	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	firewood	firewood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
12	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	_
16	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	18	amod	_	_
18	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | This |  |  |  |  | than firewood; good *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | neighbours *= neighbour* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **bring** | future | firewood | more money | us |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent we=Destination money=Theme |

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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 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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