---
title: So the son said to him, ‘Dear father, you are so poor that I am only… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So the son said to him, ‘Dear father, you are so poor that I am only a burden to you; I would rather go out into the world and see if I can earn my own living.’ Who acts: son, you, I, my. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Snake-leaves, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/46/2/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Green Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/) / [The Three Snake-leaves](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/46/) / 2

# The Green Fairy Book, The Three Snake-leaves, sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So the son said to him, ‘Dear father, you are so poor that I am only a burden to you; I would rather go out into the world and see if I can earn my own living.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** son, you, I, my · **What happens:** say, be, go out, see, earn, live · **To what, where:** man, burden, you, world, own living · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Snake-leaves. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (son, you, I, my), 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:pg7277:46:2
# text = So the son said to him, ‘Dear father, you are so poor that I am only a burden to you; I would rather go out into the world and see if I can earn my own living.’
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	Dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	so	so	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
18	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
19	only	only	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	burden	burden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	advcl	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
26	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
29	out	out	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
30	into	into	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	conj	_	_
35	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	38	mark	_	_
36	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
37	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	38	aux	_	_
38	earn	earn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	ccomp	_	_
39	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	41	nmod:poss	_	_
40	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
41	living	living	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the son |  | man |  |  |  | vn indicate-78-1 «NP V PP.recipient that S»: agent=Pivot to he=Experiencer clause=Topic |
| 2 | **is** | present | you |  |  |  |  | poor *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** | present | I | a burden | you |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **go out** | would | I |  |  | the world |  | out *property* | vn interact-36.6 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **see** | infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 6 | **earn** *a condition, not said to happen* | can | I | my own living |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent living=Theme |
| 7 | **live** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom living «cognition intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/46/1/)
- next →: [sentence 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/46/3/)
- ↑ back to [The Three Snake-leaves](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/46/)