---
title: He trotted back to the cottage with his empty basket and told his ta… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He trotted back to the cottage with his empty basket and told his tale, but the youth did not seem as pleased to hear as the fox was to tell. Who acts: fox, youth. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 25, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 25, sentence 56

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He trotted back to the cottage with his empty basket and told his tale, but the youth did not seem as pleased to hear as the fox was to tell.

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**Who acts:** fox, youth · **What happens:** trot back, tell, not seem, be, hear · **To what, where:** cottage, tale · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 25. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fox, youth), 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:pg2435:25:56
# text = He trotted back to the cottage with his empty basket and told his tale, but the youth did not seem as pleased to hear as the fox was to tell.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	trotted	trot	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	back	back	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	cottage	cottage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
9	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	basket	basket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	tale	tale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
19	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	seem	seem	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
22	as	as	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	pleased	pleased	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	xcomp	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
26	as	as	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **trot back** | past | fox |  |  | the cottage with fox's empty basket |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to cottage=Destination |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | fox *not said here* |  | fox's tale |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent tale=Recipient |
| 3 | **not** **seem** | past · do-support | the youth |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | past | the youth *not said here* |  |  |  |  | pleased *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **hear** | to-infinitive | the youth *not said here* |  |  |  |  | as the fox | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | the youth *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **tell** |  | fox |  |  |  |  |  | nom tale «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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