---
title: ‘Is this horse for sale? may I try it?’ and, the merchants assenting… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Is this horse for sale? may I try it?’ and, the merchants assenting, he scrambled up on its back, dug in his heels, and off they flew. Who acts: horse, merchants, Moti, horses. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 15, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 15, sentence 53

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‘Is this horse for sale? may I try it?’ and, the merchants assenting, he scrambled up on its back, dug in his heels, and off they flew.

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**Who acts:** horse, merchants, Moti, horses · **What happens:** be, try, assent, scramble up, dig, fly · **To what, where:** horse, sale, back, heels

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 15. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (horse, merchants, Moti, horses), 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:pg3454:15:53
# text = ‘Is this horse for sale? may I try it?’ and, the merchants assenting, he scrambled up on its back, dug in his heels, and off they flew.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	det	_	_
4	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	sale	sale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
8	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	merchants	merchant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
18	assenting	assent	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	scrambled	scramble	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
22	up	up	ADP	RP	_	21	compound:prt	_	_
23	on	on	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
27	dug	dig	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	acl	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	heels	heel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
33	off	off	ADP	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
34	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present |  | this horse |  |  |  | for sale | tree rules |
| 2 | **try** | may | this horse | sale |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |
| 3 | **assent** | gerund | the merchants |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **scramble up** | past | Moti |  |  | sale's back |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on back=Trajectory |
| 5 | **dig** | participle |  | sale's back *not said here* |  | Moti's heels |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V PP.theme PP.location»: agent=Agent in heel=Location |
| 6 | **fly** | past | horses *= horse* |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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