---
title: At first they would not hear of this, and haggled and bargained with… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At first they would not hear of this, and haggled and bargained with the man, but he stuck to what he had said, and the people were forced to give him the hand-mill. Who acts: people, Man. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Why the Sea Is Salt, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Why the Sea Is Salt, sentence 22

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At first they would not hear of this, and haggled and bargained with the man, but he stuck to what he had said, and the people were forced to give him the hand-mill.

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**Who acts:** people, Man · **What happens:** not hear, haggle, bargain, stick, say, force · **To what, where:** people, hand mill, Man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (people, Man), 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:pg503:20:22
# text = At first they would not hear of this, and haggled and bargained with the man, but he stuck to what he had said, and the people were forced to give him the hand-mill.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	6	obl	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	haggled	haggle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	conj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	bargained	bargain	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	conj	_	_
14	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	stuck	stick	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	20	obl	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	22	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nsubj:pass	_	_
30	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux:pass	_	_
31	forced	force	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	conj	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	xcomp	_	_
34	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	iobj	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
36	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	mill	mill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **hear** | would | people |  |  |  |  | of this | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer of this=Stimulus |
| 2 | **haggle** | participle | people *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **bargain** | participle | people *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with the man | vn battle-36.4 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with man=Co-Agent |
| 4 | **stick** | past | Man |  |  |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent to what=Co-Patient |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · perfect | Man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **force** | past · passive |  | the people |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 7 | **give** | to-infinitive | the people *not said here* | the hand mill | Man |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient mill=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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