---
title: If you wish to punish a scoundrel, the first thing to do is to give… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: If you wish to punish a scoundrel, the first thing to do is to give him power. Who acts: you, first thing. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Ring, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Enchanted Ring, sentence 103

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If you wish to punish a scoundrel, the first thing to do is to give him power.

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**Who acts:** you, first thing · **What happens:** wish, punish, do, be · **To what, where:** scoundrel, man

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Ring. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, first thing), 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:pg7277:19:103
# text = If you wish to punish a scoundrel, the first thing to do is to give him power.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	wish	wish	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	punish	punish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	scoundrel	scoundrel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	11	amod	_	_
11	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	acl	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	iobj	_	_
18	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wish** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **punish** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | a scoundrel |  |  |  |  | vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent scoundrel=Patient |
| 3 | **do** | to-infinitive | the first thing *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | present | the first thing |  | man |  |  | give *property* | tree rules |

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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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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