---
title: Then the old woman, in her fright and distress, confessed the whole… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the old woman, in her fright and distress, confessed the whole story of how she found the baby, and how she rescued and brought him up, and ended by beseeching the king for mercy. Who acts: old woman, mother. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story Of The King Who Would Be St
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate, sentence 82

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then the old woman, in her fright and distress, confessed the whole story of how she found the baby, and how she rescued and brought him up, and ended by beseeching the king for mercy.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old woman, mother · **What happens:** confess, find, rescue, bring up, end, beseech · **To what, where:** whole story, baby, king

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (old woman, mother), 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:pg3282:33:82
# text = Then the old woman, in her fright and distress, confessed the whole story of how she found the baby, and how she rescued and brought him up, and ended by beseeching the king for mercy.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	12	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	in	in	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	fright	fright	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	appos	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	distress	distress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
12	confessed	confess	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
16	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	_
18	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	26	advmod	_	_
25	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	rescued	rescue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	brought	bring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	_
29	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	up	up	ADP	RP	_	28	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	ended	end	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
34	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
35	beseeching	beseech	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	33	advcl	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	_
38	for	for	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	mercy	mercy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **confess** | past | the old woman | the whole story |  |  | then |  | vn confess-37.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent story=Topic |
| 2 | **find** | past | mother | the baby |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent baby=Topic |
| 3 | **rescue** | past | mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn steal-10.5 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **bring up** | past | mother *not said here* | baby |  |  |  |  | vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent he=Patient |
| 5 | **end** | past | the old woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 6 | **beseech** | gerund | the old woman *not said here* | the king |  |  |  | for mercy | tree rules |
| 7 | **fright** |  | mother |  |  |  |  |  | nom fright «feeling 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 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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