---
title: Out of pure compassion we tried to persuade them to give up this fol… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Out of pure compassion we tried to persuade them to give up this folly; but they only replied with the utmost insolence.' Who acts: we, linnets. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 32, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 32, sentence 137

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Out of pure compassion we tried to persuade them to give up this folly; but they only replied with the utmost insolence.'

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**Who acts:** we, linnets · **What happens:** try, persuade, give up, reply · **To what, where:** pure compassion, linnets, folly

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 32. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we, linnets), 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:pg3027:32:137
# text = Out of pure compassion we tried to persuade them to give up this folly; but they only replied with the utmost insolence.'
1	Out	out	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	pure	pure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	compassion	compassion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
5	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	persuade	persuade	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
12	up	up	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
13	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	14	det	_	_
14	folly	folly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	only	only	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
20	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	utmost	utmost	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	insolence	insolence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past | we |  |  | pure compassion |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **persuade** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | we *not said here* | linnets *= linnet* |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent they=Patient clause=Result |
| 3 | **give up** | to-infinitive | linnets *= linnet* *not said here* | this folly |  |  |  |  | vn resign-10.11-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent folly=Source |
| 4 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | linnets *= linnet* |  |  |  |  | with the utmost insolence | vn respond-113 «NP V PP.predicate»: agent=Agent with insolence=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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