---
title: He promised to return at the time appointed, and then, anxious to es… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He promised to return at the time appointed, and then, anxious to escape from the presence of the Beast, he asked permission to set off at once. Who acts: merchant, permission. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Beauty and the Beast, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Beauty and the Beast, part 1, sentence 76

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He promised to return at the time appointed, and then, anxious to escape from the presence of the Beast, he asked permission to set off at once.

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**Who acts:** merchant, permission · **What happens:** promise, return, appoint, escape, ask, set off · **To what, where:** presence, permission

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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, permission), 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:pg503:14:76
# text = He promised to return at the time appointed, and then, anxious to escape from the presence of the Beast, he asked permission to set off at once.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	promised	promise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	return	return	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	appointed	appoint	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	13	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	anxious	anxious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	escape	escape	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	from	from	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	presence	presence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	Beast	Beast	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
25	permission	permission	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	set	set	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
28	off	off	ADP	RP	_	27	compound:prt	_	_
29	at	at	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past | merchant |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **return** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | merchant *not said here* |  |  |  | time |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **appoint** | participle | merchant *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **escape** | to-infinitive | merchant *not said here* |  |  | the presence of the Beast |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from presence=Initial\_Location |
| 5 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | merchant | permission |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent permission=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 6 | **set off** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | permission *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.

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**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.

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