---
title: ‘Ah, wife,’ he said, ‘he cannot make you emperor; I don’t like to as… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Ah, wife,’ he said, ‘he cannot make you emperor; I don’t like to ask him that. Who acts: Husband, I. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of the Fisherman and His Wife, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Story of the Fisherman and His Wife, sentence 109

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‘Ah, wife,’ he said, ‘he cannot make you emperor; I don’t like to ask him that.

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**Who acts:** Husband, I · **What happens:** say, not make, not like, ask · **To what, where:** emperor, you, that, Husband · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of the Fisherman and His Wife. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Husband, I), 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:pg7277:54:109
# text = ‘Ah, wife,’ he said, ‘he cannot make you emperor; I don’t like to ask him that.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Ah	ah	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	‘	‘	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	emperor	emperor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
18	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Husband |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **make** | can | Husband | emperor | you |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: agent=Asset you=Beneficiary emperor=Product |
| 3 | **not** **like** | present · do-support | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | that | Husband |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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