---
title: The merchant accepted this proposal, though he did not really think… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The merchant accepted this proposal, though he did not really think any of his daughters could be persuaded to come. Who acts: merchant, any. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Beauty and the Beast, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/14/75/)

<!-- 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 Blue Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/) / [Beauty and the Beast, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/14/) / 75

# The Blue Fairy Book, Beauty and the Beast, part 1, sentence 75

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The merchant accepted this proposal, though he did not really think any of his daughters could be persuaded to come.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** merchant, any · **What happens:** accept, not think, persuade, come · **To what, where:** proposal, any · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Beauty and the Beast, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (merchant, any), 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:pg503:14:75
# text = The merchant accepted this proposal, though he did not really think any of his daughters could be persuaded to come.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	accepted	accept	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	det	_	_
5	proposal	proposal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
7	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
9	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
11	really	really	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
13	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	daughters	daughter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	_
17	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	persuaded	persuade	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	ccomp	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **accept** | past | the merchant | this proposal |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent proposal=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **think** *speech: other* | past · do-support | merchant |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **persuade** | could · passive |  | any |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Patient clause=Result |
| 4 | **come** | to-infinitive | any *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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 74](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/14/74/)
- next →: [sentence 76](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/14/76/)
- ↑ back to [Beauty and the Beast, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/14/)