---
title: So he told her that his friend had heard stories of her beauty and g… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So he told her that his friend had heard stories of her beauty and goodness, and had longed to lay the best he had at her feet. Who acts: man, friend. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 1, sentence 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So he told her that his friend had heard stories of her beauty and goodness, and had longed to lay the best he had at her feet.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man, friend · **What happens:** tell, hear, long, lay, have · **To what, where:** merchant, stories, best, feet · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (man, friend), 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:pg3282:34:41
# text = So he told her that his friend had heard stories of her beauty and goodness, and had longed to lay the best he had at her feet.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	ccomp	_	_
10	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	beauty	beauty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	goodness	goodness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	longed	long	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	conj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	21	obj	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	ccomp	_	_
26	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | man |  | merchant |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **hear** | past · perfect | man's friend | stories of merchant's beauty and goodness |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer story=Stimulus |
| 3 | **long** | past · perfect | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 4 | **lay** | to-infinitive | man *not said here* | the best |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **have** | past | man |  |  | merchant's feet |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=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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