---
title: At first the man would not hear of parting with it, but the skipper… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At first the man would not hear of parting with it, but the skipper begged and prayed, and at last the man sold it to him, and got many, many thousand dollars for it. Who acts: man, skipper. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Why the Sea Is Salt, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Why the Sea Is Salt, sentence 57

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At first the man would not hear of parting with it, but the skipper begged and prayed, and at last the man sold it to him, and got many, many thousand dollars for it.

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**Who acts:** man, skipper · **What happens:** not hear, beg, pray, sell, get · **To what, where:** skipper, mill, last, many many thousand dollars

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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 (man, skipper), 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:pg503:20:57
# text = At first the man would not hear of parting with it, but the skipper begged and prayed, and at last the man sold it to him, and got many, many thousand dollars for it.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	7	obl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	parting	parting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	skipper	skipper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	prayed	pray	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
21	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	obl	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
25	sold	sell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	conj	_	_
32	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
34	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
35	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	36	nummod	_	_
36	dollars	dollar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obj	_	_
37	for	for	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **hear** | would | the man |  |  |  |  | of parting with skipper | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer of parting=Stimulus |
| 2 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | the skipper |  |  |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V PP.Topic»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **pray** | past | the skipper *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 4 | **sell** | past | the skipper *not said here* | skipper | mill | last |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.asset»: agent=Agent it=Theme at last=Asset to he=Recipient |
| 5 | **get** | past | the skipper *not said here* | many many thousand dollars |  |  |  | for skipper | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent dollar=Theme for it=Source |

<!-- .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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