---
title: Whittington answered that he should be glad to work if anybody would… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Whittington answered that he should be glad to work if anybody would employ him, and that he should be able if he could get some victuals to eat, for he had had nothing for three days, and he was a poor country boy, and knew nobody, and nobody would employ him. Who acts: Whittington, anybody, victua
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The History of Whittington, sentence 10

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Whittington answered that he should be glad to work if anybody would employ him, and that he should be able if he could get some victuals to eat, for he had had nothing for three days, and he was a poor country boy, and knew nobody, and nobody would employ him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Whittington, anybody, victuals, nobody · **What happens:** answer, be, work, employ, get, eat · **To what, where:** Whittington, victuals, nothing, poor country boy, nobody · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Whittington. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Whittington, anybody, victuals, nobody), 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:pg503:29:10
# text = Whittington answered that he should be glad to work if anybody would employ him, and that he should be able if he could get some victuals to eat, for he had had nothing for three days, and he was a poor country boy, and knew nobody, and nobody would employ him.
1	Whittington	Whittington	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	cop	_	_
7	glad	glad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	ccomp	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	work	work	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
11	anybody	anybody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	13	nsubj	_	_
12	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	employ	employ	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	cop	_	_
21	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	_
22	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
26	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	27	det	_	_
27	victuals	victual	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
31	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
33	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	had	have	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	25	parataxis	_	_
35	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	34	obj	_	_
36	for	for	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	38	nummod	_	_
38	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
41	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	nsubj	_	_
42	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	46	cop	_	_
43	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
44	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	46	amod	_	_
45	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	compound	_	_
46	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
48	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	49	cc	_	_
49	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
50	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	49	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	55	punct	_	_
52	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	55	cc	_	_
53	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	55	nsubj	_	_
54	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	55	aux	_	_
55	employ	employ	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	49	conj	_	_
56	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	55	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | Whittington |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | should | Whittington |  |  |  |  | glad *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **work** | to-infinitive | Whittington *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **employ** *a condition, not said to happen* | would | anybody | Whittington |  |  |  |  | vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | should | Whittington |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **get** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | Whittington | some victuals |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **eat** | to-infinitive | some victuals *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **have** | past · perfect | Whittington | nothing |  |  | for three days |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient |
| 9 | **is a** | past | Whittington | a poor country boy |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 10 | **know** | past |  | nobody |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer nobody=Stimulus |
| 11 | **employ** | would | nobody | Whittington |  |  |  |  | vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=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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