---
title: Jack stopped to look at them, and the butcher told the boy that they… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Jack stopped to look at them, and the butcher told the boy that they were of great value, and persuaded the silly lad to sell the cow for these beans. Who acts: Jack, butcher, beans. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jack Sells the Cow, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Jack Sells the Cow, sentence 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Jack stopped to look at them, and the butcher told the boy that they were of great value, and persuaded the silly lad to sell the cow for these beans.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Jack, butcher, beans · **What happens:** stop, look, tell, be, persuade, sell · **To what, where:** boy, silly lad, cow · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jack Sells the Cow. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Jack, butcher, beans), 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:pg540:15:7
# text = Jack stopped to look at them, and the butcher told the boy that they were of great value, and persuaded the silly lad to sell the cow for these beans.
1	Jack	Jack	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	butcher	butcher	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	iobj	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	value	value	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	persuaded	persuade	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	silly	silly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	lad	lad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	sell	sell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	advcl	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	for	for	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	32	det	_	_
32	beans	bean	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stop** | past | Jack |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **look** | to-infinitive | Jack *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at beans *= bean* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at they=Theme |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the butcher |  | the boy |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent boy=Recipient |
| 4 | **is** | past | beans *= bean* |  |  |  |  | of great value | tree rules |
| 5 | **persuade** | past | Jack *not said here* | the silly lad |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lad=Patient |
| 6 | **sell** | to-infinitive | Jack *not said here* | the cow |  |  |  | for this beans | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent cow=Theme for bean=Asset |

<!-- .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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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