---
title: The farmer, knowing that the man was very slow-witted, gave him most… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The farmer, knowing that the man was very slow-witted, gave him most careful instructions as to everything that he was to do. Who acts: farmer, man. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 13, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/13/48/)

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 13, sentence 48

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The farmer, knowing that the man was very slow-witted, gave him most careful instructions as to everything that he was to do.

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**Who acts:** farmer, man · **What happens:** know, be, give · **To what, where:** careful instructions, man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (farmer, man), 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:pg3027:13:48
# text = The farmer, knowing that the man was very slow-witted, gave him most careful instructions as to everything that he was to do.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	farmer	farmer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	knowing	know	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
9	very	very	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
10	slow	slow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	witted	witted	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
14	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	iobj	_	_
16	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	17	advmod	_	_
17	careful	careful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	instructions	instruction	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
19	as	as	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	14	obl	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | gerund | the farmer *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is** | past | the man |  |  |  |  | witted *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **give** | past | the farmer | careful instructions | man |  |  | as everything | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient instruction=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | past | farmer |  |  |  |  | do *property* | 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 Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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