---
title: The parents then saw they had better make the best of a bad business… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The parents then saw they had better make the best of a bad business, and set about making the grand preparations suitable to the occasion. Who acts: parents. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Maiden With the Wooden Helmet, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Maiden With the Wooden Helmet, sentence 38

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The parents then saw they had better make the best of a bad business, and set about making the grand preparations suitable to the occasion.

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**Who acts:** parents · **What happens:** see, have, make, set · **To what, where:** best, grand preparations · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Maiden With the Wooden Helmet. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (parents), 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:pg641:31:38
# text = The parents then saw they had better make the best of a bad business, and set about making the grand preparations suitable to the occasion.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	parents	parent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
4	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
7	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	8	csubj	_	_
8	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	8	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	business	business	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	set	set	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
18	about	about	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
19	making	make	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	grand	grand	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	preparations	preparation	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
23	suitable	suitable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	xcomp	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	occasion	occasion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | the parents |  |  |  | then |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **have** | past | parents *= parent* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **make** | infinitive | parents *= parent* *not said here* | the best |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset good=Product |
| 4 | **set** | infinitive | the parents *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **make** | gerund | the parents *not said here* | the grand preparations |  |  |  | suitable *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset preparation=Product |

<!-- .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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