--- title: In vain he begged and prayed them to let him in; though his entreati… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: In vain he begged and prayed them to let him in; though his entreaties might have melted hearts of stone they did not move the guards of the palace, and at last, quite broken-hearted, he fell dead at their feet. Who acts: face, Sheep. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Wonderful --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/32/20/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Blue Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/) / [The Wonderful Sheep, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/32/) / 20 # The Blue Fairy Book, The Wonderful Sheep, part 3, sentence 20 In vain he begged and prayed them to let him in; though his entreaties might have melted hearts of stone they did not move the guards of the palace, and at last, quite broken-hearted, he fell dead at their feet. **Who acts:** face, Sheep · **What happens:** beg, pray, let in, melt, not move, break · **To what, where:** melted hearts, vain, Sheep, face, entreaties, guards This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Wonderful Sheep, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (face, Sheep), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg503:32:20 # text = In vain he begged and prayed them to let him in; though his entreaties might have melted hearts of stone they did not move the guards of the palace, and at last, quite broken-hearted, he fell dead at their feet. 1 In in ADP IN _ 2 case _ _ 2 vain vain NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 obl _ _ 3 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 4 nsubj _ _ 4 begged beg VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 5 and and CCONJ CC _ 6 cc _ _ 6 prayed pray VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 conj _ _ 7 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 6 obj _ _ 8 to to PART TO _ 9 mark _ _ 9 let let VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 6 advcl _ _ 10 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 9 obj _ _ 11 in in ADP RP _ 9 compound:prt _ SpaceAfter=No 12 ; ; PUNCT , _ 19 punct _ _ 13 though though SCONJ IN _ 19 mark _ _ 14 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 15 nmod:poss _ _ 15 entreaties entreaty NOUN NNS Number=Plur 18 nsubj:pass _ _ 16 might might AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 18 aux _ _ 17 have have AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 18 aux _ _ 18 melted melt VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 19 amod _ _ 19 hearts heart NOUN NNS Number=Plur 4 obl _ _ 20 of of ADP IN _ 21 case _ _ 21 stone stone NOUN NN Number=Sing 25 obl _ _ 22 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 25 nsubj _ _ 23 did do AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 25 aux _ _ 24 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 25 advmod _ _ 25 move move VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 19 acl:relcl _ _ 26 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 27 det _ _ 27 guards guard NOUN NNS Number=Plur 25 obj _ _ 28 of of ADP IN _ 30 case _ _ 29 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 30 det _ _ 30 palace palace NOUN NN Number=Sing 27 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 31 , , PUNCT , _ 42 punct _ _ 32 and and CCONJ CC _ 42 cc _ _ 33 at at ADP IN _ 34 case _ _ 34 last last ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 42 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 35 , , PUNCT , _ 34 punct _ _ 36 quite quite ADV RB _ 37 advmod _ _ 37 broken break VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 34 advcl _ SpaceAfter=No 38 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 37 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 39 hearted hearted ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 37 xcomp _ SpaceAfter=No 40 , , PUNCT , _ 34 punct _ _ 41 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 42 nsubj _ _ 42 fell fall VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 conj _ _ 43 dead dead ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 42 xcomp _ _ 44 at at ADP IN _ 46 case _ _ 45 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 46 nmod:poss _ _ 46 feet foot NOUN NNS Number=Plur 42 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 47 . . PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | face | melted hearts | | vain | | | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V PP.Topic»: agent=Agent | | 2 | **pray** | past | face *not said here* | Sheep | | | | | tree rules | | 3 | **let in** | to-infinitive | face *not said here* | face | | | | | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme | | 4 | **melt** | might · perfect · passive | | face's entreaties | | | | | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Result | | 5 | **not** **move** | past · do-support | Sheep | the guards of the palace | | | | of stone | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent guard=Theme of stone=Trajectory | | 6 | **break** | participle | face *not said here* | | | | | hearted *property* | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient | | 7 | **fall** | past | face | | | last | | at Sheep's feet; dead *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme at last=Location | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/32/19/) - next →: [sentence 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/32/21/) - ↑ back to [The Wonderful Sheep, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/32/)