--- title: When Christmas Eve came, the poor one had not a bite in the house, e… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: When Christmas Eve came, the poor one had not a bite in the house, either of meat or bread; so he went to his brother, and begged him, in God’s name, to give him something for Christmas Day. Who acts: Christmas, poor one, God. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Why the Sea Is Salt, --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/20/2/) [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/) / [Why the Sea Is Salt](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/20/) / 2 # The Blue Fairy Book, Why the Sea Is Salt, sentence 2 When Christmas Eve came, the poor one had not a bite in the house, either of meat or bread; so he went to his brother, and begged him, in God’s name, to give him something for Christmas Day. **Who acts:** Christmas, poor one, God · **What happens:** come, have, go, beg, give, name · **To what, where:** bite, house, Christmas, name, something This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Why the Sea Is Salt. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Christmas, poor one, God), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg503:20:2 # text = When Christmas Eve came, the poor one had not a bite in the house, either of meat or bread; so he went to his brother, and begged him, in God’s name, to give him something for Christmas Day. 1 When when SCONJ WRB _ 4 mark _ _ 2 Christmas Christmas PROPN NNP Number=Sing 4 nsubj _ _ 3 Eve Eve PROPN NNP Number=Sing 2 flat _ _ 4 came come VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 9 advcl _ SpaceAfter=No 5 , , PUNCT , _ 4 punct _ _ 6 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 8 det _ _ 7 poor poor ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 8 amod _ _ 8 one one NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 nsubj _ _ 9 had have VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 10 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 12 advmod _ _ 11 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 12 det _ _ 12 bite bite NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 obj _ _ 13 in in ADP IN _ 15 case _ _ 14 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 15 det _ _ 15 house house NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 16 , , PUNCT , _ 19 punct _ _ 17 either either CCONJ CC _ 19 cc:preconj _ _ 18 of of ADP IN _ 19 case _ _ 19 meat meat NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 conj _ _ 20 or or CCONJ CC _ 21 cc _ _ 21 bread bread NOUN NN Number=Sing 19 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 22 ; ; PUNCT : _ 25 punct _ _ 23 so so ADV RB _ 25 advmod _ _ 24 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 25 nsubj _ _ 25 went go VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 9 parataxis _ _ 26 to to ADP IN _ 28 case _ _ 27 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 28 nmod:poss _ _ 28 brother brother NOUN NN Number=Sing 25 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 29 , , PUNCT , _ 31 punct _ _ 30 and and CCONJ CC _ 31 cc _ _ 31 begged beg VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 25 conj _ _ 32 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 31 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 33 , , PUNCT , _ 37 punct _ _ 34 in in ADP IN _ 37 case _ _ 35 God God PROPN NNP Number=Sing 37 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 36 ’s 's PART POS _ 35 case _ _ 37 name name NOUN NN Number=Sing 31 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 38 , , PUNCT , _ 40 punct _ _ 39 to to PART TO _ 40 mark _ _ 40 give give VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 31 conj _ _ 41 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 40 iobj _ _ 42 something something PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Ind 40 obj _ _ 43 for for ADP IN _ 45 case _ _ 44 Christmas Christmas PROPN NNP Number=Sing 45 compound _ _ 45 Day Day PROPN NNP Number=Sing 40 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 46 . . PUNCT . _ 9 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **come** | past | Christmas | | | | | | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 2 | **have** | past | the poor one | a bite | | the house | | | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bite=Patient | | 3 | **go** | past | Christmas | | | | | to Christmas's brother | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to brother=Initial\_Location | | 4 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | Christmas *not said here* | | Christmas | God's name | | | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent he=Recipient | | 5 | **give** | to-infinitive | Christmas *not said here* | something | Christmas | | for Christmas Day | | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent he=Recipient something=Theme for day=Asset | | 6 | **name** | | God | | | | | | nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/20/1/) - next →: [sentence 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/20/3/) - ↑ back to [Why the Sea Is Salt](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/20/)