---
title: Before him the old woman bade the prisoner swear that she should be… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Before him the old woman bade the prisoner swear that she should be his wife, and this he did in the presence of witnesses. Who acts: prisoner, Madam, this. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 3, sentence 77

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Before him the old woman bade the prisoner swear that she should be his wife, and this he did in the presence of witnesses.

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**Who acts:** prisoner, Madam, this · **What happens:** swear, be, do · **To what, where:** old woman bade, wife, presence

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (prisoner, Madam, this), 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:pg3454:3:77
# text = Before him the old woman bade the prisoner swear that she should be his wife, and this he did in the presence of witnesses.
1	Before	before	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
5	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	bade	bade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	prisoner	prisoner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	swear	swear	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	_
10	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
12	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	cop	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	20	nsubj	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	presence	presence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	witnesses	witness	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **swear** | present | the prisoner | the old woman bade *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent bade=Eventuality |
| 2 | **is a** | should | Madam | priest's wife |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **do** | past | this |  |  | the presence of witnesses |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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