---
title: He had meant to have told his father all about it, and he was sure,… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He had meant to have told his father all about it, and he was sure, quite sure, that if once the old man had seen his wife, he would have forgiven her poverty on account of her great beauty and goodness. Who acts: man, old man. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Boo
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 19, sentence 32

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He had meant to have told his father all about it, and he was sure, quite sure, that if once the old man had seen his wife, he would have forgiven her poverty on account of her great beauty and goodness.

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**Who acts:** man, old man · **What happens:** mean, tell, be, see, forgive, account · **To what, where:** father, wife, man, account, great beauty · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, old man), 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:pg3454:19:32
# text = He had meant to have told his father all about it, and he was sure, quite sure, that if once the old man had seen his wife, he would have forgiven her poverty on account of her great beauty and goodness.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	meant	mean	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
5	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	aux	_	_
6	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	xcomp	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	iobj	_	_
9	all	all	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
10	about	about	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
16	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
22	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
23	once	once	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
27	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	conj	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj:pass	_	_
33	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
34	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	aux	_	_
35	forgiven	forgive	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
36	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
37	poverty	poverty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	_
38	on	on	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	account	account	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	_
40	of	of	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
41	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	43	nmod:poss	_	_
42	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	_
43	beauty	beauty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nmod	_	_
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
45	goodness	goodness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mean** | past · perfect | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive · perfect | man *not said here* |  | man's father |  |  | about doubt | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent father=Recipient about it=Topic |
| 3 | **is** | past | man |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **see** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | the old man | man's wife |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer wife=Stimulus |
| 5 | **forgive** | would · perfect · passive |  | man |  | account of wife's great beauty and goodness |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **account** |  |  | wife's great beauty and goodness |  |  |  |  | nom account «communication 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 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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