---
title: At length they decided to sell him, and bade a child who was passing… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At length they decided to sell him, and bade a child who was passing send them a certain tradesman called Jimmu. Who acts: walls, child. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 38, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 38, sentence 114

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At length they decided to sell him, and bade a child who was passing send them a certain tradesman called Jimmu.

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**Who acts:** walls, child · **What happens:** decide, sell, pass, send, call · **To what, where:** bade, length, man, walls, certain tradesman · **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 38. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (walls, child), 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:pg2435:38:114
# text = At length they decided to sell him, and bade a child who was passing send them a certain tradesman called Jimmu.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	decided	decide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	sell	sell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	bade	bade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
13	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	passing	pass	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	acl:relcl	_	_
16	send	send	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	acl:relcl	_	_
17	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	tradesman	tradesman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
21	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	acl	_	_
22	Jimmu	Jimmu	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **decide** | past | walls *= wall* | bade |  | length |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **sell** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | walls *= wall* *not said here* |  | man |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 3 | **pass** | past · progressive | a child |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **send** | infinitive | a child | walls *= wall* |  |  |  |  | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Destination tradesman=Theme |
| 5 | **call** | participle |  | a certain tradesman *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=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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