---
title: With tears he begged the merchant to detain them for one day by any… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: With tears he begged the merchant to detain them for one day by any kind of excuse he could think of, and to come in the morning to discuss what they should do. Who acts: Wali, merchant, tears. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 1, with it
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 1, sentence 84

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
With tears he begged the merchant to detain them for one day by any kind of excuse he could think of, and to come in the morning to discuss what they should do.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Wali, merchant, tears · **What happens:** beg, detain, think, come, discuss, do · **To what, where:** merchant, tears, excuse · **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 (Wali, merchant, tears), 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:pg3282:34:84
# text = With tears he begged the merchant to detain them for one day by any kind of excuse he could think of, and to come in the morning to discuss what they should do.
1	With	with	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	tears	tear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	detain	detain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
9	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
13	by	by	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	15	det	_	_
15	kind	kind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	excuse	excuse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	acl:relcl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	discuss	discuss	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	advcl	_	_
31	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	34	obj	_	_
32	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
33	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | Wali | the merchant |  |  |  | with tears | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent merchant=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **detain** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the merchant *not said here* | tears *= tear* |  |  | day | by any kind of excuse | vn confine-92 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | could | Wali | excuse *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot excuse=Theme |
| 4 | **come** | to-infinitive | Wali *not said here* |  |  |  | morning |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **discuss** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | Wali *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn chit\_chat-37.6-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **do** | should | tears *= tear* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=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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