---
title: He begged her to explain this riddle, which she did by showing him t… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He begged her to explain this riddle, which she did by showing him the piece of money and telling him where she found it. Who acts: Cassim, wife. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Forty Thieves, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Forty Thieves, sentence 31

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He begged her to explain this riddle, which she did by showing him the piece of money and telling him where she found it.

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**Who acts:** Cassim, wife · **What happens:** beg, explain, do, show, tell, find · **To what, where:** wife, riddle, piece, Cassim · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Forty Thieves. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Cassim, wife), 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:pg503:34:31
# text = He begged her to explain this riddle, which she did by showing him the piece of money and telling him where she found it.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	explain	explain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
6	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
7	riddle	riddle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	obj	_	_
10	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
12	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
13	showing	show	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	iobj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	conj	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	iobj	_	_
22	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	24	advmod	_	_
23	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	ccomp	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | Cassim |  | wife |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent she=Recipient |
| 2 | **explain** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | Cassim *not said here* | this riddle |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent riddle=Topic |
| 3 | **do** | past | wife | this riddle |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Eventuality |
| 4 | **show** | gerund | wife *not said here* | the piece of money | Cassim |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient piece=Topic |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | gerund | wife *not said here* |  | Cassim |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 6 | **find** | past | wife | piece |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |

<!-- .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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