---
title: But the king was not content with this reply, and began to press the… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the king was not content with this reply, and began to press the old man to say what he knew, which for a long time he would not do. Who acts: king. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate, sentence 34

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the king was not content with this reply, and began to press the old man to say what he knew, which for a long time he would not do.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** king · **What happens:** not be, begin, press, say, know, not do · **To what, where:** old man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3282:33:34
# text = But the king was not content with this reply, and began to press the old man to say what he knew, which for a long time he would not do.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	content	content	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
9	reply	reply	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	press	press	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	14	obj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
20	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	22	obj	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
24	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	32	obj	_	_
25	for	for	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
30	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
31	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	32	advmod	_	_
32	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | the king |  |  |  |  | with this reply; content *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **begin** | past | the king *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **press** | to-infinitive | the king *not said here* | the old man |  |  |  |  | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V NP ADJP-Result»: agent=Agent man=Result |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | the king *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **know** | past | king |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |
| 6 | **not** **do** | would | king |  |  |  | time |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=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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