---
title: This seemed to Hans to be easy enough; so he agreed to enter the old… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: This seemed to Hans to be easy enough; so he agreed to enter the old man's service, and they set out together. Who acts: This, Hans, pounds, old man. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 38, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 38, sentence 99

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This seemed to Hans to be easy enough; so he agreed to enter the old man's service, and they set out together.

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**Who acts:** This, Hans, pounds, old man · **What happens:** seem, be, agree, enter, set out, service · **To what, where:** Hans, service

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 38. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (This, Hans, pounds, old 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:pg3027:38:99
# text = This seemed to Hans to be easy enough; so he agreed to enter the old man's service, and they set out together.
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	nsubj	_	_
2	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	Hans	Hans	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	cop	_	_
7	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	advcl	_	_
8	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
10	so	so	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	agreed	agree	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	enter	enter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	's	's	PART	POS	_	17	case	_	_
19	service	service	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
24	out	out	ADP	RP	_	23	compound:prt	_	_
25	together	together	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | This |  | Hans |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | to-infinitive | This *not said here* |  |  |  |  | easy, enough *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **agree** *speech: agree* | past | Hans |  |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **enter** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Hans *not said here* | the old man's service |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme service=Destination |
| 5 | **set out** | past | pounds *= pound* |  |  |  |  | together *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **service** |  | the old man |  |  |  |  |  | nom service «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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