---
title: I acknowledge your power to be greater even than I can understand, f… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: I acknowledge your power to be greater even than I can understand, for you have succeeded in gaining possession of the golden mermaid, whom hitherto no mortal has ever been able to approach.’ Who acts: I, you, possession. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Mermaid, with 
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Golden Mermaid, sentence 77

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I acknowledge your power to be greater even than I can understand, for you have succeeded in gaining possession of the golden mermaid, whom hitherto no mortal has ever been able to approach.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, you, possession · **What happens:** acknowledge, be, understand, succeed, gain, approach · **To what, where:** power, possession, golden mermaid

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Mermaid. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, you, possession), 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:pg7277:52:77
# text = I acknowledge your power to be greater even than I can understand, for you have succeeded in gaining possession of the golden mermaid, whom hitherto no mortal has ever been able to approach.’
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	acknowledge	acknowledge	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	cop	_	_
7	greater	great	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	2	conj	_	_
8	even	even	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
9	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	succeeded	succeed	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	parataxis	_	_
18	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
19	gaining	gain	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
20	possession	possession	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	mermaid	mermaid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
26	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	33	nsubj	_	_
27	hitherto	hitherto	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
28	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	29	det	_	_
29	mortal	mortal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
30	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
31	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	33	advmod	_	_
32	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	33	cop	_	_
33	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	conj	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	approach	approach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **acknowledge** | present | I | your power |  |  |  |  | vn confess-37.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent power=Topic |
| 2 | **is** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  | great *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **understand** | can | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **succeed** | present · perfect | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **gain** | gerund | you *not said here* | possession of the golden mermaid |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent possession=Theme |
| 6 | **is** | present · perfect | possession of the golden mermaid |  |  |  | ever | able, hitherto *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **approach** | to-infinitive | possession of the golden mermaid *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 8 | **possess** |  |  | the golden mermaid |  |  |  |  | nom possession «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 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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