---
title: In his distress he asked charity of several people, and one of them… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In his distress he asked charity of several people, and one of them bid him “Go to work for an idle rogue.” Who acts: wagoner, one. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Whittington, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The History of Whittington, sentence 5

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In his distress he asked charity of several people, and one of them bid him “Go to work for an idle rogue.”

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**Who acts:** wagoner, one · **What happens:** ask, bid, go, work, distress · **To what, where:** charity, distress, wagoner · **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 (wagoner, one), 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:pg503:29:5
# text = In his distress he asked charity of several people, and one of them bid him “Go to work for an idle rogue.”
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	distress	distress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	charity	charity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	several	several	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	nsubj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nmod	_	_
15	bid	bid	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	Go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	work	work	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	idle	idle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	rogue	rogue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | wagoner | charity of several people |  | wagoner's distress |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent charity=Recipient |
| 2 | **bid** | past | one of people | wagoner |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **go** *in a quote* | infinitive | one of people *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **work** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | one of people *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for a idle rogue | vn employment-95.3 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent for rogue=Beneficiary |
| 5 | **distress** |  | wagoner |  |  |  |  |  | nom distress «feeling transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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