---
title: The farmer’s wife, however, would touch nothing, and at last declare… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The farmer’s wife, however, would touch nothing, and at last declared that the only supper she wanted was one of the onions the poor man was cooking at the fire. Who acts: wife, only supper, poor man. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 19, with its depend
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 19, sentence 77

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The farmer’s wife, however, would touch nothing, and at last declared that the only supper she wanted was one of the onions the poor man was cooking at the fire.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** wife, only supper, poor man · **What happens:** touch, declare, want, be, cook · **To what, where:** nothing, last, only supper, one, onions, fire

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (wife, only supper, poor 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:pg3454:19:77
# text = The farmer’s wife, however, would touch nothing, and at last declared that the only supper she wanted was one of the onions the poor man was cooking at the fire.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	farmer	farmer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	’s	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	however	however	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	touch	touch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
10	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	obl	_	_
15	declared	declare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	only	only	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	supper	supper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
20	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
23	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	xcomp	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	onions	onion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	cooking	cook	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	acl:relcl	_	_
32	at	at	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **touch** | would | the farmer's wife | nothing |  |  |  | however *property* | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme nothing=Co-Theme |
| 2 | **declare** *speech: other* | past | the farmer's wife *not said here* |  |  | last |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **want** | past | wife | the only supper *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot supper=Theme |
| 4 | **is a** | past | the only supper | one |  |  |  | of the onions | tree rules |
| 5 | **cook** | past · progressive | the poor man | the onions *not said here* |  | the fire |  |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent onion=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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