---
title: The man hesitated: it did seem a ‘little thing,’ and if it was to ma… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The man hesitated: it did seem a ‘little thing,’ and if it was to make his wife contented and happy it was well worth the risk. Who acts: man, it, wife, thing. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/7/88/)

<!-- 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 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/7/) / 88

# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 7, sentence 88

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The man hesitated: it did seem a ‘little thing,’ and if it was to make his wife contented and happy it was well worth the risk.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man, it, wife, thing · **What happens:** hesitate, seem, be, content · **To what, where:** little thing

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, it, wife, thing), 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:pg3454:7:88
# text = The man hesitated: it did seem a ‘little thing,’ and if it was to make his wife contented and happy it was well worth the risk.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	hesitated	hesitate	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	7	punct	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	seem	seem	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
9	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
15	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	contented	content	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	ccomp	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	conj	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
27	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	28	advmod	_	_
28	worth	worth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	conj	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	risk	risk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hesitate** | past | the man |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **seem** | past · do-support | it | a little thing |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme thing=Attribute |
| 3 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | it |  |  |  |  | make *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **content** | past | Man's wife |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **is** | past | thing |  |  |  |  | well, worth *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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 87](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/7/87/)
- next →: [sentence 89](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/7/89/)
- ↑ back to [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/7/)