---
title: “I am invited to the wedding,” answered the reindeer, “and the mille… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “I am invited to the wedding,” answered the reindeer, “and the miller has begged me on no account to fail him.” Who acts: reindeer. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 21, sentence 55

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“I am invited to the wedding,” answered the reindeer, “and the miller has begged me on no account to fail him.”

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**Who acts:** reindeer · **What happens:** invite, be, beg, fail · **To what, where:** boy, reindeer, miller, account · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, 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 (reindeer), 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:pg3282:21:55
# text = “I am invited to the wedding,” answered the reindeer, “and the miller has begged me on no account to fail him.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	invited	invite	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	csubj	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	wedding	wedding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
10	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	reindeer	reindeer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	miller	miller	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	begged	beg	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	acl:relcl	_	_
20	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	on	on	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	23	det	_	_
23	account	account	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	fail	fail	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
26	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **invite** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | the boy *= boy* |  |  |  | to the wedding | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Recipient |
| 2 | **is a** | past |  | the reindeer |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **beg** *speech: request* *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive | the reindeer *not said here* | the miller | the boy *= boy* | no account |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **fail** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | the reindeer *not said here* | reindeer |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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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