---
title: His work did not seem hard, for he had only two horses and a cow to… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: His work did not seem hard, for he had only two horses and a cow to see after, and though he had been hired for a year, the year consisted of but three days, so that it was not long before he received his wages. Who acts: work, Peter, year. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/27/57/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Crimson Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/) / [The Crimson Fairy Book, part 27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/27/) / 57

# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 27, sentence 57

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
His work did not seem hard, for he had only two horses and a cow to see after, and though he had been hired for a year, the year consisted of but three days, so that it was not long before he received his wages.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** work, Peter, year · **What happens:** not seem, have, see, hire, consist, not be · **To what, where:** two horses, Peter, wages

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 27. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (work, Peter, year), 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:pg2435:27:57
# text = His work did not seem hard, for he had only two horses and a cow to see after, and though he had been hired for a year, the year consisted of but three days, so that it was not long before he received his wages.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	seem	seem	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
11	only	only	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
13	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	acl	_	_
19	after	after	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
22	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	26	aux:pass	_	_
26	hired	hire	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	_
27	for	for	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
33	consisted	consist	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
36	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	37	nummod	_	_
37	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
39	so	so	ADV	RB	_	44	advmod	_	_
40	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	44	mark	_	_
41	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	44	nsubj	_	_
42	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	44	cop	_	_
43	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	44	advmod	_	_
44	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	47	advmod	_	_
45	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	47	mark	_	_
46	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	47	nsubj	_	_
47	received	receive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
48	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	49	nmod:poss	_	_
49	wages	wage	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **seem** | past · do-support | Peter's work |  |  |  |  | hard *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past | Peter | two horses and a cow |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent horse=Patient |
| 3 | **see** | to-infinitive | Peter *not said here* |  |  |  |  | after *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **hire** | past · perfect · passive |  | Peter |  |  | year |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 5 | **consist** | past | the year |  |  |  | day |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **not** **is** | past | work |  |  |  |  | long *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **receive** | past | Peter | Peter's wages |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wage=Theme |
| 8 | **work** |  | Peter |  |  |  |  |  | nom work «act 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 56](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/27/56/)
- next →: [sentence 58](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/27/58/)
- ↑ back to [The Crimson Fairy Book, part 27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/27/)