---
title: We laugh at the absurdity of the thing--a potter's son marrying a pr… — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: We laugh at the absurdity of the thing--a potter's son marrying a princess, and we cry at the terrible consequence of the marriage. Who acts: We, son. A sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# Indian Fairy Tales, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 12, sentence 38

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
We laugh at the absurdity of the thing--a potter's son marrying a princess, and we cry at the terrible consequence of the marriage.

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**Who acts:** We, son · **What happens:** laugh, marry, cry · **To what, where:** absurdity, princess, terrible consequence

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This is a sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (We, son), 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:pg7128:18:38
# text = We laugh at the absurdity of the thing--a potter's son marrying a princess, and we cry at the terrible consequence of the marriage.
1	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	laugh	laugh	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	at	at	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	absurdity	absurdity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	potter	potter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	's	's	PART	POS	_	11	case	_	_
13	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
14	marrying	marry	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	acl	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	cry	cry	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
21	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	consequence	consequence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	marriage	marriage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **laugh** | present | We |  |  | the absurdity of the thing and a potter's son |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **marry** | gerund | a potter's son *not said here* | a princess |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent princess=Patient |
| 3 | **cry** *speech: express* | present | we |  |  | the terrible consequence of the marriage |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at consequence=Location |

<!-- .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:** «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7128 (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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