---
title: ‘Tell my father and mother that I have a fever, and want some gruel,… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Tell my father and mother that I have a fever, and want some gruel,’ said he, ‘and bid them send it quickly.’ Who acts: I, slave. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/21/25/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 21, sentence 25

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Tell my father and mother that I have a fever, and want some gruel,’ said he, ‘and bid them send it quickly.’

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**Who acts:** I, slave · **What happens:** tell, have, want, say, bid, send · **To what, where:** father, fever, gruel · **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 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, slave), 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:pg3454:21:25
# text = ‘Tell my father and mother that I have a fever, and want some gruel,’ said he, ‘and bid them send it quickly.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	ccomp	_	_
3	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	fever	fever	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	want	want	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
15	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	16	det	_	_
16	gruel	gruel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
19	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
22	‘	‘	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	bid	bid	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	19	parataxis	_	_
25	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	send	send	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | infinitive |  |  | my father and mother |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent father=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **have** | present | I | a fever |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fever=Patient |
| 3 | **want** | present |  | some gruel |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot gruel=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | slave |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **bid** | infinitive |  | father |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **send** | infinitive |  | gruel |  |  |  | quickly *property* | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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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