---
title: The shepherd was fond of children, so he took the baby home with him… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The shepherd was fond of children, so he took the baby home with him and gave it plenty of milk, and by the time the boy was fourteen he could tear up oaks as if they were weeds. Who acts: shepherd, boy, oaks. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 31, wi
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 31, sentence 22

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The shepherd was fond of children, so he took the baby home with him and gave it plenty of milk, and by the time the boy was fourteen he could tear up oaks as if they were weeds.

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**Who acts:** shepherd, boy, oaks · **What happens:** be, take, give, tear up · **To what, where:** baby, fourteen, oaks

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 31. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (shepherd, boy, oaks), 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:pg2435:31:22
# text = The shepherd was fond of children, so he took the baby home with him and gave it plenty of milk, and by the time the boy was fourteen he could tear up oaks as if they were weeds.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	shepherd	shepherd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	fond	fond	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	so	so	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	home	home	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
14	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	plenty	plenty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
24	by	by	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
30	fourteen	fourteen	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	26	nmod	_	_
31	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
32	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	tear	tear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	conj	_	_
34	up	up	ADP	RP	_	33	compound:prt	_	_
35	oaks	oak	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obj	_	_
36	as	as	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
37	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	40	mark	_	_
38	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nsubj	_	_
39	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	40	cop	_	_
40	weeds	weed	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the shepherd |  |  |  |  | of children; fond *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **take** | past | Shepherd | the baby |  |  |  | with Niels; home *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent baby=Theme |
| 3 | **give** | past | Shepherd *not said here* | baby |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent it=Recipient plenty=Theme |
| 4 | **is a** | past | the boy | fourteen |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **tear up** | could | Shepherd | oaks |  |  | time |  | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location oak=Theme |
| 6 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | oaks *= oak* |  |  |  |  | as weeds | tree rules |

<!-- .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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