---
title: So he sent a message to her parents asking their leave to take her f… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So he sent a message to her parents asking their leave to take her for his wife, and they came next day to bring their answer. Who acts: he, parents, leave. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 21, 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/pg3027/21/1/)

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 21, sentence 1

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So he sent a message to her parents asking their leave to take her for his wife, and they came next day to bring their answer.

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**Who acts:** he, parents, leave · **What happens:** send, ask, take, come, bring, answer · **To what, where:** message, parents, leave, her, answer

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (he, parents, leave), 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:pg3027:21:1
# text = So he sent a message to her parents asking their leave to take her for his wife, and they came next day to bring their answer.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	message	message	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	parents	parent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
9	asking	ask	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	acl	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	leave	leave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
14	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
22	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl:unmarked	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	advcl	_	_
26	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **send** | past | he | a message | her parents |  |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent message=Theme to parent=Destination |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | gerund | her parents *not said here* | parents's leave |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent leave=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **take** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | parents's leave *not said here* | her *= she* |  |  |  | for his wife | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent she=Theme for wife=Beneficiary |
| 4 | **come** | past | parents *= parent* |  |  |  | day |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **bring** | to-infinitive | parents *= parent* *not said here* | parents's answer |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent answer=Theme |
| 6 | **answer** |  | parents *= parent* |  |  |  |  |  | nom answer «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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