---
title: And a man replied, in a faltering voice, that each year a beautiful… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And a man replied, in a faltering voice, that each year a beautiful girl was chosen by lot to be offered up to a dreadful fiery dragon, who had a mother even worse than himself, and this year the lot had fallen on their peerless princess. Who acts: man, lot, dreadful fiery dragon. A sentence of «The
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/37/88/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Brown Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/) / [Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted,…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/37/) / 88

# The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 4, sentence 88

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And a man replied, in a faltering voice, that each year a beautiful girl was chosen by lot to be offered up to a dreadful fiery dragon, who had a mother even worse than himself, and this year the lot had fallen on their peerless princess.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man, lot, dreadful fiery dragon · **What happens:** reply, choose, offer up, have, fall · **To what, where:** faltering voice, beautiful girl, dreadful fiery dragon, mother

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, lot, dreadful fiery dragon), 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:pg3282:37:88
# text = And a man replied, in a faltering voice, that each year a beautiful girl was chosen by lot to be offered up to a dreadful fiery dragon, who had a mother even worse than himself, and this year the lot had fallen on their peerless princess.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	replied	reply	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	faltering	faltering	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
12	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	13	det	_	_
13	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl:unmarked	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux:pass	_	_
18	chosen	choose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
19	by	by	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	lot	lot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
22	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	aux:pass	_	_
23	offered	offer	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	advcl	_	_
24	up	up	ADP	RP	_	23	compound:prt	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
27	dreadful	dreadful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
28	fiery	fiery	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	32	nsubj	_	_
32	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	acl:relcl	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
35	even	even	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	worse	badly	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	32	advmod	_	_
37	than	than	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
41	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	42	det	_	_
42	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obl:unmarked	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	lot	lot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	nsubj	_	_
45	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	46	aux	_	_
46	fallen	fall	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
47	on	on	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
48	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	50	nmod:poss	_	_
49	peerless	peerless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	_
50	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | participle | a man |  |  | a faltering voice |  |  | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **choose** | past · passive | lot | a beautiful girl |  |  | year |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme |
| 3 | **offer up** | to-infinitive · passive | lot *not said here* |  | a dreadful fiery dragon |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: to dragon=Goal |
| 4 | **have** | past | a dreadful fiery dragon | a mother |  |  |  | badly *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mother=Patient |
| 5 | **fall** | past · perfect | the lot |  |  |  | year | on men's peerless princess | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on princess=Location |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 87](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/37/87/)
- next →: [sentence 89](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/37/89/)
- ↑ back to [Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/37/)