---
title: At first he thought the crier mad, and to inform himself went to a s… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At first he thought the crier mad, and to inform himself went to a shop, and said to the merchant, who stood at the door: “Pray, sir, is not that man” (pointing to the crier who cried the ivory perspective glass at thirty purses) “mad? Who acts: crier, merchant, man. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Bo
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou, part 1, sentence 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At first he thought the crier mad, and to inform himself went to a shop, and said to the merchant, who stood at the door: “Pray, sir, is not that man” (pointing to the crier who cried the ivory perspective glass at thirty purses) “mad?

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**Who acts:** crier, merchant, man · **What happens:** think, inform, go, say, stand, pray · **To what, where:** crier, shop, merchant, door, man, ivory perspective glass · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (crier, merchant, man), 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:pg503:49:41
# text = At first he thought the crier mad, and to inform himself went to a shop, and said to the merchant, who stood at the door: “Pray, sir, is not that man” (pointing to the crier who cried the ivory perspective glass at thirty purses) “mad?
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	4	obl	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	crier	crier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	mad	mad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	inform	inform	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
12	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	13	nsubj	_	_
13	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	shop	shop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	_
25	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	acl:relcl	_	_
26	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	31	punct	_	_
30	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	Pray	pray	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
33	sir	sir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
35	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	38	cop	_	_
36	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	38	advmod	_	_
37	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	38	det	_	_
38	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	38	punct	_	_
40	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	41	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	pointing	point	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	38	acl	_	_
42	to	to	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	crier	crier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obl	_	_
45	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	46	nsubj	_	_
46	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	44	acl:relcl	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
48	ivory	ivory	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	_
49	perspective	perspective	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	compound	_	_
50	glass	glass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obj	_	_
51	at	at	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
52	thirty	thirty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	53	nummod	_	_
53	purses	purse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	41	punct	_	_
55	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	56	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	mad	mad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | crier | the crier |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot crier=Theme |
| 2 | **inform** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | crier *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn tell-37.2 «NP V NP.recipient S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **go** | past | crier |  |  | a shop |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to shop=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  | the merchant |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to merchant=Recipient |
| 5 | **stand** | past | the merchant |  |  | the door |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at door=Location |
| 6 | **pray** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | sir *vocative* | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 7 | **not** **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | that man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **point** | gerund | that man *not said here* |  | the crier |  |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to crier=Recipient |
| 9 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | the crier | the ivory perspective glass |  | thirty purses |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent glass=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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