---
title: At the gates he left them, though his wife besought him to allow her… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At the gates he left them, though his wife besought him to allow her to enter. Who acts: procession, wife. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 14, sentence 109

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At the gates he left them, though his wife besought him to allow her to enter.

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**Who acts:** procession, wife · **What happens:** leave, beseech, allow, enter · **To what, where:** gates, procession, wife

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (procession, wife), 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:pg3027:14:109
# text = At the gates he left them, though his wife besought him to allow her to enter.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	gates	gate	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	besought	beseech	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	allow	allow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
15	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	iobj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	enter	enter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **leave** | past | procession | gates *= gate* |  | the gates |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent they=Theme at gate=Location |
| 2 | **beseech** | past | procession's wife | procession |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **allow** | to-infinitive | procession's wife *not said here* |  | wife |  |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: agent=Causer she=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **enter** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | procession's wife *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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