---
title: With a great air of mystery he begged permission to speak to the fai… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: With a great air of mystery he begged permission to speak to the fair Lucia, of whose skill in needlework he had heard so much, as he had a commission to give her. Who acts: man, permission, commission. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 16, with its 
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 16, sentence 86

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
With a great air of mystery he begged permission to speak to the fair Lucia, of whose skill in needlework he had heard so much, as he had a commission to give her.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man, permission, commission · **What happens:** beg, speak, hear, have, give · **To what, where:** permission, commission, Dame · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, permission, commission), 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:pg2435:16:86
# text = With a great air of mystery he begged permission to speak to the fair Lucia, of whose skill in needlework he had heard so much, as he had a commission to give her.
1	With	with	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	mystery	mystery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	permission	permission	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	fair	fair	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	Lucia	Lucia	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	skill	skill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	needlework	needlework	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	19	parataxis	_	_
25	so	so	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	much	much	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	commission	commission	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	xcomp	_	_
35	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | man | permission |  |  |  | with a great air of mystery | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent permission=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | permission *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the fair Lucia | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to lucia=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **hear** | past · perfect | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **have** | past | man | a commission |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **give** | to-infinitive | a commission *not said here* |  | Dame |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme |

<!-- .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 Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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