---
title: The merchant, taking him by the hand, said: “Indeed, Mr. Whittington… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The merchant, taking him by the hand, said: “Indeed, Mr. Whittington, I am in earnest with you, and sent for you to congratulate you on your great success. Who acts: merchant. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Whittington, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The History of Whittington, sentence 71

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The merchant, taking him by the hand, said: “Indeed, Mr. Whittington, I am in earnest with you, and sent for you to congratulate you on your great success.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** merchant · **What happens:** take, say, be, send, congratulate · **To what, where:** God, you, great success · **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 (merchant), 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:pg503:29:71
# text = The merchant, taking him by the hand, said: “Indeed, Mr. Whittington, I am in earnest with you, and sent for you to congratulate you on your great success.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	taking	take	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	Indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
15	Mr.	Mr.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nmod:desc	_	_
16	Whittington	Whittington	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	earnest	earn	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	16	nmod	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	sent	send	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	_
27	for	for	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	congratulate	congratulate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	advcl	_	_
31	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	on	on	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
34	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	success	success	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | gerund | the merchant *not said here* |  | God |  |  | by the hand | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument he=Destination |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the merchant |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present | the merchant *= merchant* |  |  |  |  | with you; earn *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **send** *in a quote* | participle | the merchant *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for you | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **congratulate** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | the merchant *not said here* | you |  | your great success |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=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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