---
title: For a long time he was quite happy and contented, and asked for noth… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: For a long time he was quite happy and contented, and asked for nothing better than what he had. Who acts: Cutter. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/19/114/)

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 19, sentence 114

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For a long time he was quite happy and contented, and asked for nothing better than what he had.

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**Who acts:** Cutter · **What happens:** be, content, ask, have

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Cutter), 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:pg2435:19:114
# text = For a long time he was quite happy and contented, and asked for nothing better than what he had.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	contented	content	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	13	obl	_	_
16	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	13	ccomp	_	_
17	than	than	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	obl	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Cutter |  |  |  | time | happy *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **content** | participle | Cutter *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Cutter *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for nothing | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **have** | past | Cutter |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

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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:** «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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