---
title: But the more he put her off, the more she tormented him to tell her… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the more he put her off, the more she tormented him to tell her the cause of his laughter. Who acts: husband, mistress. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 6, sentence 62

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the more he put her off, the more she tormented him to tell her the cause of his laughter.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** husband, mistress · **What happens:** put off, torment, tell, cause · **To what, where:** mistress, husband, cause, laughter · **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 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (husband, mistress), 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:pg2435:6:62
# text = But the more he put her off, the more she tormented him to tell her the cause of his laughter.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	5	advmod	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	put	put	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	off	off	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	12	advmod	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	tormented	torment	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
16	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	iobj	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	cause	cause	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	laughter	laughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **put off** | past | husband |  | mistress |  |  |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent she=Goal |
| 2 | **torment** | past | mistress | husband |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | mistress *not said here* | the cause of husband's laughter | mistress |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient cause=Topic |
| 4 | **cause** |  |  | husband's laughter |  |  |  |  | nom cause «event transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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