---
title: Now, the merchant was usually a most honest man, but he did not quit… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Now, the merchant was usually a most honest man, but he did not quite like to describe Wali Dâd in his true light as an old man whose income was five halfpence a day, and who had hardly clothes to cover him. Who acts: merchant, man, income, honest man. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew 
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 1, sentence 40

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Now, the merchant was usually a most honest man, but he did not quite like to describe Wali Dâd in his true light as an old man whose income was five halfpence a day, and who had hardly clothes to cover him.

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**Who acts:** merchant, man, income, honest man · **What happens:** be, not like, describe, have, cover, light · **To what, where:** honest man, Wali, true light, five halfpence, clothes, man

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (merchant, man, income, honest 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:pg3282:34:40
# text = Now, the merchant was usually a most honest man, but he did not quite like to describe Wali Dâd in his true light as an old man whose income was five halfpence a day, and who had hardly clothes to cover him.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
6	usually	usually	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
8	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	9	advmod	_	_
9	honest	honest	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
14	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
16	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	acl:relcl	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	describe	describe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	Wali	Wali	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
21	Dâd	Dâd	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	flat	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
24	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
26	as	as	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
30	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	income	income	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
32	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
33	five	five	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	34	nummod	_	_
34	halfpence	halfpence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
39	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	40	nsubj	_	_
40	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl:relcl	_	_
41	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	_
42	clothes	clothes	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	40	obj	_	_
43	to	to	PART	TO	_	44	mark	_	_
44	cover	cover	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	40	advcl	_	_
45	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	44	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | the merchant | a honest man |  |  | now | usually *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **like** | past · do-support | man | a honest man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **describe** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | man *not said here* | Wali |  | man's true light |  | as a old man | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent wali=Theme as man=Attribute |
| 4 | **is a** | past | five halfpence's income | five halfpence |  |  | day |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **have** | past | a honest man | clothes |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent clothes=Patient |
| 6 | **cover** | to-infinitive | a honest man *not said here* |  | man |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme he=Destination |
| 7 | **light** |  | man |  |  |  |  |  | nom light «phenomenon 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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