---
title: In answer, the poor man told, in a few words, how he had begged the… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In answer, the poor man told, in a few words, how he had begged the houses from his brother, and produced the deed of gift which made him their owner. Who acts: poor man, man, deed. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 20, with its dependency tree and the p
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 20, sentence 21

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In answer, the poor man told, in a few words, how he had begged the houses from his brother, and produced the deed of gift which made him their owner.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** poor man, man, deed · **What happens:** tell, beg, produce, make · **To what, where:** answer, houses, deed, owner, man · **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 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor man, man, deed), 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:pg3454:20:21
# text = In answer, the poor man told, in a few words, how he had begged the houses from his brother, and produced the deed of gift which made him their owner.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	advmod	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	begged	beg	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	appos	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	houses	house	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
20	from	from	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	produced	produce	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	deed	deed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	gift	gift	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	_
30	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	31	nsubj	_	_
31	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	acl:relcl	_	_
32	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	_
33	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	owner	owner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the poor man |  |  | answer |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **beg** *speech: request* | past · perfect | man | the houses |  |  |  | from man's brother | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent house=Recipient |
| 3 | **produce** | past | the poor man *not said here* | the deed of gift |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent deed=Result |
| 4 | **make** | past | the deed of gift | house's owner | man |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: agent=Asset he=Beneficiary owner=Product |

<!-- .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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