---
title: They stared at him in astonishment, and besought him not to be so ma… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They stared at him in astonishment, and besought him not to be so mad and to throw away his life in such a foolish manner; but he only laughed, and answered that if they could tell him of any other way in which to procure a cow and a pig to fatten, he would think no more about it. Who acts: muleteer
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/33/108/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/33/) / 108

# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 33, sentence 108

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They stared at him in astonishment, and besought him not to be so mad and to throw away his life in such a foolish manner; but he only laughed, and answered that if they could tell him of any other way in which to procure a cow and a pig to fatten, he would think no more about it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** muleteers, mind, other way · **What happens:** stare, beseech, not be, throw away, laugh, answer · **To what, where:** astonishment, mind, life, foolish manner, cow, more · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 33. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (muleteers, mind, other way), 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:pg3454:33:108
# text = They stared at him in astonishment, and besought him not to be so mad and to throw away his life in such a foolish manner; but he only laughed, and answered that if they could tell him of any other way in which to procure a cow and a pig to fatten, he would think no more about it.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	stared	stare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	at	at	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	astonishment	astonishment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	besought	beseech	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	cop	_	_
14	so	so	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	mad	mad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	advcl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	throw	throw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
19	away	away	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
23	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	26	det:predet	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	foolish	foolish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	manner	manner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	31	punct	_	_
28	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	only	only	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	conj	_	_
35	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	39	mark	_	_
36	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	39	mark	_	_
37	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
38	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	39	aux	_	_
39	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	ccomp	_	_
40	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	iobj	_	_
41	of	of	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
42	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	44	det	_	_
43	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	amod	_	_
44	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obl	_	_
45	in	in	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
46	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	48	nsubj	_	_
47	to	to	PART	TO	_	48	mark	_	_
48	procure	procure	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	44	acl:relcl	_	_
49	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
50	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obj	_	_
51	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	53	cc	_	_
52	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
53	pig	pig	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	conj	_	_
54	to	to	PART	TO	_	55	mark	_	_
55	fatten	fatten	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	48	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	59	punct	_	_
57	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	59	nsubj	_	_
58	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	59	aux	_	_
59	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	39	conj	_	_
60	no	no	ADV	RB	_	61	advmod	_	_
61	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	59	obj	_	_
62	about	about	ADP	IN	_	63	case	_	_
63	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	61	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
64	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stare** | past | muleteers *= muleteer* |  |  | astonishment |  | at mind | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at he=Theme |
| 2 | **beseech** | past | muleteers *= muleteer* *not said here* | mind |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **is** | to-infinitive | muleteers *= muleteer* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | mad *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **throw away** | to-infinitive | muleteers *= muleteer* *not said here* | mind's life |  | such foolish manner |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent life=Theme in manner=Destination |
| 5 | **laugh** | past | mind |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | mind *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **tell** *speech: assert* *a condition, not said to happen* | could | muleteers *= muleteer* |  | mind |  |  | of any other way | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 8 | **procure** | to-infinitive | any other way | a cow and a pig |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cow=Theme |
| 9 | **fatten** | to-infinitive | any other way *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 10 | **think** *speech: other* | would | mind | more |  |  |  | about pig | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot more=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 107](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/33/107/)
- next →: [sentence 109](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/33/109/)
- ↑ back to [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/33/)