---
title: At last a thought came to him to send for his headsman, and inquire… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: At last a thought came to him to send for his headsman, and inquire of him particularly, Did he behead his son, or was he alive? Who acts: last thought, Prince. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 13, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 13, sentence 103

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At last a thought came to him to send for his headsman, and inquire of him particularly, Did he behead his son, or was he alive?

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**Who acts:** last thought, Prince · **What happens:** come, send, inquire, behead, be · **To what, where:** Prince, son

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (last thought, Prince), 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:pg14241:27:103
# text = At last a thought came to him to send for his headsman, and inquire of him particularly, Did he behead his son, or was he alive?
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	thought	thought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	send	send	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	headsman	headsman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	inquire	inquire	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	_
18	particularly	particularly	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	Did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	behead	behead	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	alive	alive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | a last thought |  | Prince |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to he=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **send** | to-infinitive | a last thought *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for Prince's headsman | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **inquire** *speech: other* | infinitive | a last thought *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of Prince; particularly *property* | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V PP.recipient how S»: agent=Agent of he=Recipient |
| 4 | **behead** | past · do-support | Prince | Prince's son |  |  |  |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 5 | **is** | past | Prince |  |  |  |  | alive *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:** «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 14241 (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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