---
title: The woman (as the cat was a good mouser) asked a deal of money for i… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The woman (as the cat was a good mouser) asked a deal of money for it, but on Whittington’s telling her he had but a penny in the world, and that he wanted a cat sadly, she let him have it. Who acts: woman, Whittington. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Whittington, 
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The History of Whittington, sentence 19

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The woman (as the cat was a good mouser) asked a deal of money for it, but on Whittington’s telling her he had but a penny in the world, and that he wanted a cat sadly, she let him have it.

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**Who acts:** woman, Whittington · **What happens:** be, ask, tell, have, want, let · **To what, where:** good mouser, deal, woman, penny, world, cat · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (woman, Whittington), 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:pg503:29:19
# text = The woman (as the cat was a good mouser) asked a deal of money for it, but on Whittington’s telling her he had but a penny in the world, and that he wanted a cat sadly, she let him have it.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
3	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	as	as	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	mouser	mouser	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	10	punct	_	_
12	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	deal	deal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
21	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	Whittington	Whittington	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’s	's	PART	POS	_	22	case	_	_
24	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	27	advcl	_	_
25	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
28	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	penny	penny	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
36	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	38	mark	_	_
37	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
38	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
39	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obj	_	_
41	sadly	sadly	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
43	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	44	nsubj	_	_
44	let	let	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
45	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	44	obj	_	_
46	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	44	xcomp	_	_
47	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | a good mouser |  |  |  | as the cat | tree rules |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the woman | a deal of money for money |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent deal=Recipient |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | gerund | Whittington *not said here* |  | woman |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient |
| 4 | **have** | past | Whittington | a penny |  | the world |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent penny=Patient |
| 5 | **want** | past | Whittington | a cat |  |  |  | sadly *property* | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot cat=Theme |
| 6 | **let** | past | woman | Whittington |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **have** | infinitive | Whittington *not said here* | penny |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 8 | **deal** |  |  | money for money |  |  |  |  | nom deal «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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