---
title: But the wife of Halfman was the prettiest of them all, and the other… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the wife of Halfman was the prettiest of them all, and the other brothers were jealous and said to each other: ‘What, is he who is only half a man to get the best? Who acts: wife, other brothers. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Halfman, with its dependency tree
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Halfman, sentence 50

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But the wife of Halfman was the prettiest of them all, and the other brothers were jealous and said to each other: ‘What, is he who is only half a man to get the best?

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**Who acts:** wife, other brothers · **What happens:** be, say, get · **To what, where:** each, man, best · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Halfman. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wife, other brothers), 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:pg641:41:50
# text = But the wife of Halfman was the prettiest of them all, and the other brothers were jealous and said to each other: ‘What, is he who is only half a man to get the best?
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Halfman	Halfman	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	prettiest	pretty	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	0	root	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	_
11	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
17	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	jealous	jealous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	parataxis	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	20	obl	_	_
23	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	35	punct	_	_
25	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	35	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
28	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	35	cop	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
30	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	35	nsubj	_	_
31	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	35	cop	_	_
32	only	only	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	half	half	DET	PDT	NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac|PronType=Ind	35	det:predet	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	appos	_	_
36	to	to	PART	TO	_	37	mark	_	_
37	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	acl	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	37	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the wife of Halfman |  |  |  |  | of daughters *= daughter*; pretty *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | the other brothers |  |  |  |  | jealous *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the other brothers *not said here* |  | each |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to each=Recipient |
| 4 | **is a** | present |  | half man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **get** | to-infinitive | the wife of Halfman *not said here* | the best |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer good=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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