---
title: One day the king sent for the merchant, who was a widower, to give h… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: One day the king sent for the merchant, who was a widower, to give him directions about a journey he wished the good man to take. Who acts: king, merchant. 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 cla
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 38, sentence 36

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
One day the king sent for the merchant, who was a widower, to give him directions about a journey he wished the good man to take.

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**Who acts:** king, merchant · **What happens:** send, be, give, wish, take · **To what, where:** widower, directions, king, good man

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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 (king, merchant), 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:pg2435:38:36
# text = One day the king sent for the merchant, who was a widower, to give him directions about a journey he wished the good man to take.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	widower	widower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	iobj	_	_
18	directions	direction	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
19	about	about	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	journey	journey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	wished	wish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **send** | past | the king |  |  |  | day | for the merchant and a widower | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past | the merchant and a widower | a widower |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **give** | to-infinitive | the king *not said here* | directions | king |  |  | about a journey | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient direction=Theme |
| 4 | **wish** | past | king | the good man |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot man=Theme |
| 5 | **take** | to-infinitive | king *not said here* | the good man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: 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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