---
title: Thus, in a few hours, the merchant found himself in charge of a sple… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Thus, in a few hours, the merchant found himself in charge of a splendid caravan; and he had to hire a number of armed men to defend it on the road against the robbers, and he was glad indeed to find himself back again in Wali Dâd’s hut. Who acts: few hours, king. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 1, sentence 45

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Thus, in a few hours, the merchant found himself in charge of a splendid caravan; and he had to hire a number of armed men to defend it on the road against the robbers, and he was glad indeed to find himself back again in Wali Dâd’s hut.

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**Who acts:** few hours, king · **What happens:** find, have, hire, defend, be, charge · **To what, where:** king, charge, number, road, hut, splendid caravan

<!-- .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 (few hours, 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:pg3282:34:45
# text = Thus, in a few hours, the merchant found himself in charge of a splendid caravan; and he had to hire a number of armed men to defend it on the road against the robbers, and he was glad indeed to find himself back again in Wali Dâd’s hut.
1	Thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	hours	hour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	10	obj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	charge	charge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	splendid	splendid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	caravan	caravan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	hire	hire	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	armed	armed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	defend	defend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	advcl	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	on	on	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
35	against	against	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	robbers	robber	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
40	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	nsubj	_	_
41	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	cop	_	_
42	glad	glad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	parataxis	_	_
43	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	_
44	to	to	PART	TO	_	45	mark	_	_
45	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	42	advcl	_	_
46	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	45	obj	_	_
47	back	back	ADV	RB	_	48	advmod	_	_
48	again	again	ADV	RB	_	45	advmod	_	_
49	in	in	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
50	Wali	Wali	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	53	nmod:poss	_	_
51	Dâd	Dâd	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	50	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	’s	's	PART	POS	_	50	case	_	_
53	hut	hut	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **find** | past | a few hours | king |  | charge of a splendid caravan |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Topic |
| 2 | **have** | past | king |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **hire** | to-infinitive | king *not said here* | a number of armed men |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent number=Theme |
| 4 | **defend** | to-infinitive | king *not said here* | number |  | the road against the robbers |  |  | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Beneficiary |
| 5 | **is** | past | king |  |  |  |  | glad, indeed *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **find** | to-infinitive | king *not said here* | king |  | Wali's hut | again |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Topic |
| 7 | **charge** |  |  | a splendid caravan |  |  |  |  | nom charge «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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